Unknown Dangers
by Amyranth Harkness
Summary: Amelia Sharpe, didn't exactly know what she was getting herself into when she agreed to meet with Nikola Tesla against Helen Magnus's wishes.
1. Chapter 1Intro

Disclaimer...well...you know, the usual...don't own it, if I did, I would be rich..

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I held my weapon down at an angle past my thigh as I toed the door to the cabin open with my boot. It was dark in the woods, the light was still on in the small country cottage and I could see just enough to work. I had followed the trail of blood from the cemetery to this house, knowing the abnormal that I sought, Charles O'Connor would not stop to come to me. It was going to be another hunt. I knew I should phone for help but I was afraid that by then, O'Connor would be gone. Rain started to fall down through the trees and soak my black t-shirt and drag my hair down the sides of my face, making me push it away before I could continue. "Hello?" I called into the lit up house, "My name is Amelia Sharpe, I am a police officer. I followed-" I was cut off as the door slammed shut onto my arms, instantly bruising them and making me drop my weapon. I yelped a little, startled and kicked the door back open, retrieving my gun before standing straight again. A man was suddenly at my side, smiling at me and looking as if the rain had not touched him at all. He mouthed "Magnus" at me silently and nodded. I nodded back and motioned with my head towards the door.

The man moved with me through the house at a run, as if he knew my mind or my training and we both hit the back door with our shoulders, bursting out into the backyard with no effort. He moved left and I moved right, training my weapon on anything that moved, which turned out to be nothing as my suspect was gone. I could see something running on two legs then morphing to run on four legs, I moved to follow at a sprint, my weapon pointed out and to the side. "Wait!" the man called, moving quickly to my side. "He's leading you towards the thicker woods, he will have an advantage there."

I stopped short, turning to look at the man Magnus had supposedly sent to back me up. "He is a danger to normals everywhere as well as to himself. I have to go after him, it's what Magnus wanted me to do. He can't do again what he did earlier, two people are dead now because of him." I replied, and took up my sprint again towards the woods, pulling out my flashlight and rushing in. I could hear the man following from a distance.

The flashlight made the darkness around me seem even darker as the beam bounced off the trees closest to me. I could hear light breathing from behind me, I assumed it was the man who had been following me. "So when are you going to tell me who you are? You are unarmed, and too well dressed to be out here to help me. Magnus would never send unarmed backup for something like this." I smiled slightly to my side, aiming my gun towards the distance, trying not to make any unnecessary eye contact.

"I find anonymity rather arousing but obviously it makes you nervous." he replied, I could hear the grin on his face as he took a place nearer to me. "Nikola Tesla."

I risked a glance away from the horizon and looked at his face, still smiling. "Magnus didn't send you, she can't even get in touch with you, Mr. Tesla." I shifted to move my weapons aim closer to Nikola but not on him. "How did you find me and why did you want to?"

Nikola grinned wider and looked around for a moment before putting his hands in his pockets. "I need someone who knows about me. From your wariness I can see that Magnus has not told you anything good about me, but I do want the chance to prove your preconceptions wrong."

I stepped back about a half a step from him, knowing full well how Tesla's 'need' for me was not a good thing. I heard crunching leaves behind me and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. Nikola stepped forward and swept his arm across my chest, lightly moving me behind him. "Magnus didn't know he was a full lycanthrope, did she?" he leaned down as if challenging something in the distance.

I scrunched my eyes for a moment, he was right. "No, she didn't know. I never called her back." I replied, training my gun past his shoulder. The wind picked up a little bit and sent rain down my spine, chilling me to the bone. I could see movement near a tree about 15 yards away and I moved my weapon to aim at it. "Lets just work on getting this abnormal and then we will talk about what you need from me."

"Well that is very helpful," Nikola smiled and took a half a step forward and my heart stopped beating so hard, it had been pounding to loud I could hear it in my ears. The fact that Tesla 'needed' me made me nervous and I almost wanted to call Helen and tell her what was going on, but the fact my cell phone was in my SUV and there was an angry, confused werewolf in the woods stalking me.

A howl in the distance set me running through the trees, Tesla close behind me. I could hear the pounding of feet coming closer to us and I raised my gun at the dark shadow racing towards us. "Charles! You don't want to do this!" I yelled as he came closer. "Stop!"

The werewolf stopped dead in his tracks and focused on me with yellowed eyes, I could see him in the moonlight and the shaky light from my flashlight. Charles locked eyes with me and I couldn't move. I could feel Nikola move behind me and his arm came around my shoulders again, pushing me out of the way, putting himself between me and the wolf. Charles took the challenge and charged at me instead of Nikola. I shot three times at the wolf and he dodged each, left-right-left till he was ten feet from us. "No you don't, Charlie boy." Nikola hissed from in front of me and I could see his vampiric claws emerging from his fingertips. He charged at Charles and all I could see was a ball of furious, meaningful punches, gouges and tears.

"Nikola! Don't hurt him!" I yelled into the fray of flashing teeth and claws. A few moments later Nikola leaned down on Charles who was back into human form on the ground,his arm twisted behind him and panting. " Here, I have a tranquilizer," I reached into my pocket and pulled out the syringe and handed it to Nikola. He pulled the cap off it with his teeth, still sharp, and sank the needle into the abnormals neck. Charles's labored breathing soon stopped and he went limp. I breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Nikola who was straightening his red tie and black suit coat.

"Wasn't really planning on getting dirty, but that's part of the job I suppose." he grinned at me and tossed the syringe over his shoulder into the woods. I avoided contact with his eyes and looked down at the abnormal on the ground.

"Could you help me get him to the SUV?" I asked, but I wasn't sure why, I knew I could handle getting the small man into my Explorer with minimal trouble.

"Of course, I will help you." he replied, picking the unconscious man up and tossing him over his shoulder, locking eyes with me. "After you get done at the Sanctuary, will you meet with me again?"

He wasn't going to the Sanctuary with me, me didn't want Helen knowing that I saw him. "Yes, I will meet you again. Just let me know when." I replied as we walked back to the blue SUV that I had parked in front of the cottage. I holstered my gun on my hip and dug in my pocket for the keys, my mind running through scenarios of what Nikola Tesla could want with me, nothing good came to mind.

I popped the back hatch on the SUV and helped Nikola put Charles in the back.

"You holstered your gun." Nikola said very matter of fact. "You aren't scared of me?"

"You just helped me capture an abnormal and you haven't made any ill attempt towards me yet. Why should I worry? Besides, I am a very fast draw." I smiled at him genuinely for the first time since we met. "Aunt Helen says you are very gentlemanly and I highly doubt that the harm of a woman in the dark woods runs very parallel to your tastes."

"My God, you are eloquent." he grinned and opened the drivers side door for me. "I don't think I could hurt anyone if they spoke so well, honestly. And I do hope you hold a higher opinion of me than to think I would harm you even on a street in broad daylight..."he moved back a little so I could sit in the drivers seat. "Or anywhere else.." he said under his breath, but he was so close I could hear him as he moved to adjust my seat belt. I could smell the cologne he used and he stayed that close for a moment. "I need you to trust me." he said, his hand resting on my shoulder, he smoothed a piece of hair away from my face. I could feel goosebumps radiating from his touch. "I will let you know when the time is right to meet again. Please don't tell Helen of our meeting, it may...'complicate'..the next one." he shut the door for me and stepped away from the door. I started the Explorer and rolled down the window to ask him if he needed a ride, but he was gone. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up almost painfully and my body chilled for many reasons. I shoved away my misgivings about Nikola and his unorthodox methods of getting my attention and started my long way home to the Sanctuary. I knew he would never risk Aunt Helen's wrath by harming me, it would be fruitless, what would he gain by doing that? I wasn't even an abnormal. I kept driving, trying to ignore the chills down my spine every time I thought about seeing Nikola again.


	2. Chapter 2 Sinking

Disclaimer...same as the first but with a twist! I do not own anything but my own imagination, because if I did own anything, Tesla would be chained to my bed...muhaha...

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"Simply amazing, Amelia!" Aunt Helen Magnus lilted in her beautiful English accent. My butchered American accent seemed like blasphemy compared to her. I smiled and looked up from the book I had been reading on Meso-American culture. I was in the library in a ridiculously tall, purple wing-backed chair with my legs slung over the arm and a pillow behind my back. "I only wanted you to talk to him, not capture him. If I would have known he was that dangerous, I would have never sent you alone. Will should have gone with you, Kate even. You were wrong not to call back here for backup. But you pulled it off alone, Amelia and I am amazed." she smiled, coming to stand before me with her arms crossed, but friendly. She wore a burgundy button down shirt and black pants, I could tell she had just come from her office, she seemed relaxed and fresh. There must not have been many emergencies since I had come back.

I chuckled a little at how 'alone' I had been, but I couldn't betray that to her without risking the next meeting with him which still unsettled me a little. I couldn't understand why I wanted so badly to keep it secret from her. "It was no big deal, Aunt Helen, honestly, just a few bumps an bruises." I replied, setting my book down and sitting upright to put my feet down on the floor, my boots clicking a little on the marble. "How is Charles anyways?"

"Oh yes," She smiled, leaning against the pool table near me. "Awake and quite angry." she leveled her eyes at me in the way she had done since I was little, the way that made my throat freeze up and not let me swallow, the way that made me believe that if I answered wrong she was going to strangle me. I couldn't breathe for a moment. My thoughts raced, she had to know about Tesla, there was no other reason she would be looking at me like that. "He said something about a man helping you, said he roughed him up a bit, strong and...abnormal. I asked him who it was and he said for me to ask you. He said it was the man who took him down, not you." Helen stared me down for a moment before crossing her arms again. I could deny it or confess, either way she would find out the truth. I could feel my cheeks burn red for a moment. It was my Aunt Helen, the woman who had practically raised me, how could I keep something like that from her. "Amelia...Please tell me what's going on."

"Tesla," I said, raising my eyes to hers, connecting with a snap. "Nikola Tesla helped me take Charles O'Connor down." I didn't know why but I could feel a challenge rising inside me as if daring her to say something about what had happened. My heart beat a little bit faster and I leaned forward towards her.

She searched my eyes for a moment before speaking. "How many times has he come to you?" she asked, her tone neutral.

"This was the first time, Aunt Helen. He said he needed help from me." I stood up and moved closer to Helen, wanting to wrap my arms around her as I saw the pain on her face. "Please trust me, Aunt Helen. I know what I am doing."

"No, no one ever knows what they are doing with Nikola Tesla. I have seen him suck the souls from his victims, his friends. The people that he 'needs' are the ones that suffer the most. Amelia, please tell me you won't ever meet him again. Just let this go. Pretend it never happened and your life will still be untouched by him." I could tell Aunt Helen was begging in her own way, and she never did that.

"Yes, Aunt Helen. I understand, I do...It was stupid of me..." I sat back down. I knew I could placate her for the moment, I knew, then I would have a chance to do what needed to be done later. "I will pretend it never happened, but my shoulder is starting to hurt again...I think I need to go see Will...It needs re-wrapped I think." I stood slowly, gauging her reaction from the corner of my eye. She watched me for a moment and nodded.

"Please listen to me, Amy. I don't want you getting mixed up with him for any reason. Nikola Tesla means no good to anyone in the Sanctuary." she said at my retreating back. I nodded again and felt a little crestfallen. She would be watching my every move from now on and seeing Nikola would be a miracle. I walked down the hallway as if heading towards Wills lab and took a quick right heading down another hallway towards my rooms. I lived on in the Sanctuary even though I wasn't an abnormal because it was easier that way, Aunt Helen could always find me and in this instance, she would know where I was every moment of every day. There were cameras everywhere.

I noticed as I opened up my door that there was an envelope shoved under it. I raised an eyebrow at the letter before stooping down to pick it up and moving inside to shut my door. My room was decorated much the same way as the library, masses of books covering any surface that would hold them, heavy blue velvet drapes pulled open to allow light, a fireplace that was yet unused this year and a large overstuffed double wide chair that I loved to curl up in. My bed was large and covered in a blue down comforter, white lace sheets and a multitude of pillows all arranged haphazardly, I never made my bed, it seemed like a waste of time since I would be getting back in it sooner or later, a habit that drove Aunt Helen insane. I plopped down in the overstuffed chair and looked at the envelope. I knew who it was from, but what I was left wondering was how he got it in the Sanctuary. We had cameras covering every corner, shields up to prevent 'other' modes of transport, and other abnormals in the way of security. There was no feasible way that I could imagine he got that envelope under my door. I ripped it open and peered inside to see a red card laying inside, as I pulled it out, I could almost smell his cologne on it and I smiled unconsciously. It was a business card to a very nice restaurant downtown, the words were engraved into the card with a silvery foil and professional scroll work down the sides. I flipped the card over and read the back, the loopy handwriting made any misgivings that it might be from someone else fly out the window. The beautiful yet masculine handwriting could only belong to one person, Tesla. That day's date was written on the back along with a time, Saturday at 10P.M. It was only Wednesday, and I felt slightly disappointed. I laid the envelope and the card under a book on one of my stands and rose to leave the room again. On the way out of the room, the tree in the front courtyard that rose up to the second story of the Sanctuary caught my eye. It had turned a beautiful color of orange, it looked like candy corn covered in honey. I smiled and paused to appreciate it for a moment, imagining it was my own personal tree like I used to when I was small. I shook my head for a second, those thoughts were so far behind me now, there were other things that needed taken care of now, the least of which was my own personal tree.

I continued on with my day all smiles and politeness while Helen kept a close eye on me. Will seemed to be a little wary around me as well while I was helping him in the clinic. "How's the shoulder, Amy? Still sore?" he smiled as he tossed me a roll of gauze to restock the cupboards. "I told Magnus I should have gone with you..."

"Will, my shoulder would have been sore even then because you always let me go first." I laughed, smiling at him as he continued to toss supplies at me.

"That's because I'm scared of going first and you shooting me," Will smirked a little and tossed the empty box aside.

I turned back around and jumped off the ladder I had been standing on. "Really...because as I recall, you are the one who can't hit the broad side of a barn without a laser sight..." I crossed my arms and leaned against the wall, awaiting a reply.

Will grinned sheepishly and nodded. "So...Magnus told me you had help out there anyways..."

"God, did she have to tell everyone? What did she say?" I asked, rubbing my sore shoulder. The pain of my fingertips on the bruise kept most of the anger out of my voice.

"She just said that Tesla was poking his nose around somewhere it was definitely not welcome." Will moved to my side, his hands shooing mine away from my shoulder. " She's worried about you, Amy. Not just because you faced a very dangerous abnormal on your own. She said you're not thinking of the dangers that you're facing with Tesla. Trust me, I've known him for a while myself, not as long as Magnus obviously, but he is never good news. The last time I saw him, well...it was a while ago...but-"

I cut him off, unable to hear any more. "Will, it is my business whether I am-" I didn't even know how to continue. "Will...lets please not do this right now. I am still tired and my shoulder hurts." I said, knowing just how to play Zimmerman to my advantage. He moved his hands to my shoulder, rubbing it for me, I leaned against him for a moment. "You know I love you like family, hell Will, you are family to me. But just trust me when I say I need to do this. What is going on with Nikola is nothing, he said he needs help. I can't just tell him to go away, you know I can't."

"Amy, your big heart is going to get you hurt really badly one of these days." Will hugged me close, I could feel his breath against my hair and it made me feel safe instead of uneasy like it did sometimes. "Let me go with you?" he asked, his face still buried in my hair.

"No, Will, you know I can't do that. But I promise I will leave my phone on and I will already have your number dialed, alright? But honestly, Nikola hasn't even told me when he wants to meet again. He may have decided he could handle what ever this is on his own. Everyone just needs to calm down. So what? Nikola Tesla happened to show up and help me out of a tight spot and ask for a favor in return. Nothing insanely dangerous and creepy there, now is there?" I replied, stepping away from Will and pulling my hair back away from my neck and up into a loose bun.

Will turned away and shook his head a little bit, opening another box of supplies and tossing me a few suture kits. "Lets get these put away before dinner, ok?"

"Will...Don't get all hostile now..." I poked him in the side to make him smile, succeeding slightly.

He looked back at me and shoved the box closer to me. "Alright,alright...I get it." I replied, grabbing a handful of supplies and sorting them into various cupboards and drawers. I wondered if Will would tell Helen what was said this afternoon between the two of us. I already knew that I was just piling one lie on top of another with everyone that I had talked to so far. First with Aunt Helen, then Will, who would I have to lie to next to keep everything a secret. Why was it such a big secret anyways? I couldn't understand why everyone was making it such a big deal and forcing my hand. I shook my head to clear it. I would not think of this again till Saturday, I promised myself.


	3. Chapter 3 Infatuation

Disclaimer...don't own it...wish I did...

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The rest of the week drug by as if it was being held back by the days preceding, making each day seem slower than the last. Finally, Saturday arrived bringing with it a torrent of rain and lightning. "Dammit..." I sighed, thinking about driving in the downpour. "Of course it would rain though, everyone hasn't been doing a good enough job at keeping me down this week, it's gotta rain..."

I threw on my favorite gray sweater and a pair of my best blue jeans over boots and grabbed my gray pea-coat from the back of the chair near my bed. A knock at the door startled me a little as I tossed my keys into my pocket. "Yeah?" I called at the door, knowing most people would just open the door and come in.

The door cracked open and a head popped inside, it was Will with his wallet out in his hand. "Just checking to see if you wanted to go shopping, figured since I had to go out anyways...Sooo..." he waved his wallet at me and grinned widely. "Looks like you're ready to go out anyways."

I forced out a smile and shook my head. "I've got to pick some 'things' up...Doubt you wanna come along for that, Will...You know...girl things..." I smiled back and waved my car keys at him. "I'll be back before you know it. And then we can go out if you want." I knew Will was eyeing me doubtfully from behind my back as I turned to shut the window I had cracked a little bit earlier that afternoon.

"You are going shopping for 'girl stuff' at seven thirty at night, Amy?" Will asked me, leaning against my door frame. I knew he didn't believe me but it really didn't matter. Short of locking me in my room and boarding up my windows, there was nothing he could do to stop me.

"Emergency, Will...you know how it goes." I grinned for a moment and brushed past him into the hallway.

"Amelia..." Will began, I could tell he was getting upset but I didn't have time to stop to talk. I turned towards him, smiling brightly, trying to distract him from what he was thinking. "Just be careful, and call me later ok?" It worked.

I nodded to him and walked down the hallway towards the elevator door, heading to the garage where I had last parked my SUV. The hand in my pocket held the red card from Nikola and my thumb ran over the etched foiling over and over. After I shut the door to the elevator, I could feel the excitement building little by little. I tried to imagine what someone so brilliant as Tesla would need from me. I was not completely ignorant of what had happened between Aunt Helen and Nikola over the years and it was not beyond my thinking that he wanted me to talk to her for him. The thought sobered me. Why was I so excited? What made me want to lie to everyone and go against Helen for the first time in my life? What was so bloody important?As I thought over it on the way down in the elevator, the instance of Nikola so close to me in the car flashed through my mind and I smiled...I smiled...Why? "Oh, God...OH God..." I thought to myself. The chills that he had given me, the emphasis I kept putting on his closeness to me. "I'm infatuated with him..." I said quietly to myself. I shook off my thoughts and exited the elevator.

My car was parked in the same spot as before, just as I had left it but I felt that something was off about it. I looked under the step to get into the vehicle and inside each wheel well for anything out of place. My search yielded a small square chip, a tracker. I grinned and stuck it under Wills vehicle's wheel well, laughing to myself. "Serves you right..."

I jumped up into my blue Explorer and turned the ignition and backed out of the garage and drove down the gravel driveway. Rain pelted the windshield as I turned onto the street and accelerated away from the Sanctuary. I felt suddenly as if my security blanket had been taken away the further I drove away from my home. Had Helen and Will been right, was this a bad idea? I shook my head again and justified myself. It was still daylight and we were meeting in a crowded place, and besides...Nikola he only wanted to talk. This was a meeting of objectives..."Yes..." I told myself, "It's safe.."

I arrived at the restaurant about twenty minutes later and parked along the street. Upon exiting the SUV, the rain pelted my face and made me pull my jacket around me closer. I jogged up to the door and was pleasantly surprised to have it opened for me by a waiter. "This way please, " he asked me, shocking me a little as if he had been waiting on me. I followed him, trying uselessly to pat the water off my hair and shake it off my coat a little. He led me to a fairly empty side room where only a few guests were sitting and talking quietly over their suppers of small, over priced entrees. I saw Nikola at a corner table smiling at me with a glass of wine in his hand. The waiter pulled out a chair across from Nikola and pushed it in behind me. With a nod at Nikola, he retreated from the table and left us alone, the only two for about ten yards on either side of us. Nikola wore another stylish suit of dark gray with a blue tie, each line of his clothing was crisp as if someone had ironed it to him. I smiled a little as he filled a glass with red wine for me.

"Glad to see you could make it...alone...I was wondering really. The wrath of Helen Magnus is a strange and terrifying thing." he smirked a little as he sipped his wine.

"How did you know that she knew?" I asked a little perturbed. I looked at the wine he had poured me and back at him before taking a drink.

"I have my ways of learning things, trust you me. Besides...ever wonder how I got that letter into your room?" he grinned, showing perfect teeth in the most charming smile I had ever seen. I took a deep drink of wine.

"Alright, so you know things...I guess that puts you at an advantage because I am still in the dark on why I am here right now. You haven't told me a thing. What am I supposed to be helping you with? I mean, you're Nikola Tesla for God's sake." I tried to turn my recently realized emotions into something else other than what they were, it came out as sounding aggravated and tired.

Something changed on Nikola's face, something small but noticeable. A slight drop of his confident smile, his eyes weren't smiling either. He seemed serious and a little sad. "Amelia, I will be honest with you." he paused and leaned forward, his manners keeping him from putting his elbows on the table. "I need your blood."

I blinked once, twice, three times and leaned down to pick up my bag from the floor by my feet. "Thank you, Mr, Tesla for the lovely glass of wine, I believe it is time for me to return before Aunt Helen has a fit." I stood and looked down at the immortal man still sitting, leaned forward, so honest and un-Tesla-like. I froze for a moment as his eyes met mine and damned my hormones as I asked, "Why, Nikola, why do you need my blood?"

Again, Nikola's face changed into something of a smile I couldn't distinguish. "I need your blood because I think I can replicate the experiment your Aunt and I did all those years ago. But I need a piece of Magnus, and you're close enough. I am asking you this, begging you this...because the experiment does have a deadline...I am losing my powers, Amelia. I don't know why and every test I've run doesn't tell me anything...I can only hope to recreate that experiment to fix what is happening to me."

I sat back down in the chair, my legs weak, I couldn't imagine the man I saw before me now, crippled by losing his powers, part of himself. "Alright...you win, Nikola...I will give you what you want. I just hope you're telling me the truth..."

We proceeded to have dinner together, talking and laughing as if nothing were about to happen, a slight apprehension still lingering in the back of my mind. I shrugged it off, feeling that if something bad were really going to happen, I would know. Nikola was all smiles and jokes as I nibbled at my salad, watching him down wine like no one I had ever seen. He complained about the brand and year anyways, even though it was the most expensive bottle in the restaurant. As we finished the last of the bottle, I realized I had a little much and chuckled to myself, if Aunt Helen saw me now...She would have a heart attack, I realized. I was half-drunk in a restaurant with one of the most dangerous abnormals I had ever known. In general, really bad idea.

"Amelia, seeing as you drove here and then we decided to drink three bottles over the last three hours...allow me to offer you my services of getting you to where you are going? But first, I'm going to ask you for the sample you agreed to." Nikola smiled and held out his hand to help me from the table after leaving a generous tip under his well used wine glass. I tucked a piece of brownish hair behind my ear and took his hand, getting to my feet with no problem and grabbing my bag to follow him to the entrance.

My head swam a little bit and I tucked my keys into my purse, knowing I wasn't about to be driving anywhere. Nikola led me to a black Mercedes-Benz McLaren parked at the end of the parking lot. It was dark and still raining slightly, now just a mist as we walked to the car, a few feet away from each other. I checked my cellphone in my pocket for messages, there were none so I turned it off. "I'm going to take you back to my lab, if that's alright with you...just to make sure nothing goes wrong." he smiled the most trustworthy smile I had ever seen and I nodded complacently, and slid into the dark tinted car as he shut the door behind me. I raised an eyebrow at myself and shook my head. I knew the risk I was taking, but I had to know what Tesla was doing. If he was able to recreate the experiment that gave Aunt Helen and Druitt their powers, he could use it to make an army. I was going to go along until the point I needed backup. And then again, if I needed backup...I was screwed.

Nikola started the car and smiled at me. "I do so love my little excesses...immortality is boring without them."

"I can see that...I do like the car though, very...Nikola." I replied.

"I like it...you've known me all of one week and you are putting things into categories pertaining to me. "

I blushed for a moment and smiled, "I didn't mean it that way, honestly. Just that it's dark...and expensive...and kinda sexy.." I laughed as the last part slipped out without me thinking about it, I looked out the window as he turned the car onto the freeway, heading to the country. I made a mental map of where we were going, just in case I needed to know.

Nikola laughed a little and switched lanes at break neck speeds, the hum of the tires on the road lulling me into somewhat of a trance, blanking my mind out as we drove onwards away from the city. The last thing I remember was Nikola turning off the freeway onto a smaller highway and looking at me out of the corner of his eye with a smirk on his face. The smirk made me a little uneasy but I couldn't help falling asleep.

When I woke, it was to Nikola putting the car into park and a little panic went through my mind as I realized I had no idea where we were. I looked over at Nikola who are smiling pleasantly at me and I smiled back. "We are here, sleepy head." he said as he opened his car door and stepped out.

"Right," I said sleepily and opened my own door and grabbed my purse before standing up. We were in the hills, I could see the lights of the city far away, like a hazy fog. "Where are we, Nikola?"

"My place, if that explanation is sufficient," Nikola laughed to himself and started the small walk to the front door of his 'place'. It was in fact a geometric looking structure of cement and glass walls, seemingly three stories high in some places, two stories in others.

"Beautiful..." I smiled, following him as I took in the view of the obviously man-made structure against the backdrop of nature, resplendent in fall colors, I could even tell the reds and golds of the leaves in the dark.

"Thank you, Amelia." he took my hand and smiled, unlocking the door without looking. "As I said, immortality is boring without excesses."

As we walked into the house, it was dark for a moment before he turned on the lights with a switch that I guessed was by the door. The house looked modern from the outside but from the inside it was a study in antique decor. Crimson, black and gray were prominent everywhere and the sofa had clawed feet, I could tell it was nearly ancient. Matter of fact, most of the things in the room were nearly ancient, but well restored. "Have a seat, I will get what I need from downstairs." Nikola smiled at me and motioned to the couch.

I moved slowly, examining everything I could while Nikola was out of the room. There were lamps that were ridiculously expensive and paintings that should have been in museum somewhere. Everything was entrancing and as I sat on the sofa waiting for Nikola return, I saw a photo album open near a large wing back chair in dark red. I pulled the album to face me and I realized I was looking at a much younger version of my Aunt Helen. She was dressed in a dark gown standing between Druitt, Watson, Griffin,and Tesla, smiling as if all were well. It must have been before the experiment. I had never seen Aunt Helen smile like that, as if the sun rose each morning just for her. It was Druitt, I realized as I noted how close she was standing to him, in the picture there may as well have been a wall between those two and the rest. I heard footsteps coming back and I moved the album back to where it was and sat contentedly on the sofa.

"I brought another bottle of wine, this one is much better than what we had at the restaurant. I can't believe that they get away with serving that grape juice as wine." he smiled and put two glasses down on the coffee table along and put the syringe down beside it with a vial for collecting. I looked at it nervously and scooted back on the sofa. Nikola smiled again and put both the syringe and the vial into his gray vest pocket. I noted he had taken off his jacket and rolled his sleeves up. For some reason, I was watching his forearms as he poured the wine into the glasses as slid one my way. For such a small man, he exuded a palpable power that was almost intoxicating in itself. I shook my head and took the glass from him.

"You have a very beautiful home, Nikola, honestly." I smiled, looking around again. He sat next to me on the sofa and chuckled. Something had changed about him suddenly, I could feel a kind of heat coming from him and an anxiety building in me. It was like sitting next to a panther, sleek and terrifying. We drank in silence for a moment, seemingly enjoying each others company. He was right, it was better wine, I noted as it went straight to my head. "Nikola, I am going to have to get back to the Sanc-" I was cut off as he turned to me and pressed his lips to mine. I gave up as soon as it started, I couldn't help it. I kissed him back, setting my glass down on the table as gracefully as I could manage. His arms wrapped around my back and pulled me close to him, I felt like I couldn't breathe, almost like I didn't ever want to breathe again. He released my lips and kissed down my face to my neck, whispering little things I couldn't comprehend. He stopped for a moment to pull back and look at me, he smoothed my hair back and I noticed he wasn't smiling. I raised an eyebrow for a moment, the wine making me slower at realizing what was going on. Nikola looked away from me as he held my head and a whispered "I am so sorry, Amelia." as he brought his lips to mine. I didn't even get a chance to move before I felt she sharp pain of the syringe at my neck, then a warm, comfortable numbness. As I slipped into a drugged stupor, I felt Nikola get up from the sofa and walk a few steps away. He looked at me, his face blank as my eyes grew heavier.

"Nikola?" I whispered as I felt myself falling, leaning back into the sofa. Nikola simply stood there, watching as if he was helpless. He finally came to my side, kneeling by the sofa.

"I won't hurt you...But I wasn't completely honest with you either..." he smoothed my hair away from my face. "But I meant the kiss."

The lights faded away as did Nikola's face and the realization that I was in way over my head. I dreamed of the Sanctuary and of Aunt Helen, even of Zimmerman and the Big Guy. Even in the back of my dreams, I knew I was in a whole lot of trouble and I wished I hadn't turned off my cell phone.


	4. Chapter 4 New Life

Disclaimer...don't own it, wish I did, read and review if you think that Nikola is a bit of a sexy bastard :D

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It was me, Amelia Sharpe. Weapons expert and a fair fighter on my own right, I was taken down by a manipulative abnormal with a needle. As I woke up, I found myself seething with a rage I had previously not known, mostly mad at myself for being so damned stupid. I had been in trouble before, but mostly in dark places where I still had the chance for salvation by backup. Here in this place, there was no hope besides the fact that if I was gone too long, Aunt Helen would form a lynch mob and attack Tesla. Not that it was going to do any good, I realized, looking around. I was in a rather cold and sterile basement like room, tied securely to a chair, alone. I chuckled to myself, trying to find humor in the situation, at least I was keeping it chair in place, it wasn't going anywhere. I blinked a little, still dizzy and fuzzy and noticed a pulling at my arm. I looked up and slightly behind me and saw an IV pole with something red dripping down...down...down...into me! I started to rock the chair back and forth, trying to move away from the pole, trying to dislodge the IV from my arm. "Nikola!" I yelled, straining at whatever he had tied me with. "Nikola, get down here, what are you doing? You son of a bitch!" I raged. I managed to tip the chair down onto its side, slamming my injured shoulder into the ground and groaning with the pain I could hear footsteps on what I assumed was stairs and I tried to scoot sideways, dragging the IV tube along the ground, pulling it loose.

My whole body burned, but I assumed it was from anger and fear, I could honestly barely feel it. I looked at the IV bag on the pole and noted there was only a little bit left in the bag, but the line on the bag said it was only filled up a little bit. The footsteps got louder as I rubbed my forearm against the concrete floor.

"Now, Amelia..." Nikola scolded, easily picking me back up off the floor and righting the chair. "You know better than that." he smoothed my hair out of my face. "I really am sorry I wasn't honest with you...I didn't exactly need your blood, well...I did, but more importantly I needed you to have my blood. All of my previous experiments have failed horribly, but I believe that I have found the correct method of splicing my DNA into a hosts DNA." Nikola paused for a moment. "I needed your genes because you are related to Magnus and she survived the injection with sanguine vampiris."

I was lost for words for a moment, my fear and grief were palpable. "You do not know if this will work...You chose me because I am of her blood...you could only end up making me immortal." I chose my words most carefully, not wanting to make him angry with me and further complicate my current predicament.

"I thought of that, but all in all, I think it is work the risk. I don't believe it will harm you in any way, or I would have never done it. I don't want to hurt you at all, Amelia, but I need to figure out a way to recreate my race." Nikola looked wistful for a moment. "You and I, leaders of the new vampire race...Can't you see it?" he busied himself working with the IV for a moment, making sure everything was flowing correctly. "I made this serum to be less...harmful to humans. Your DNA should be as susceptible to it as Magnus's, but it may be a little uncomfortable for a little while...I can sedate you again if you wish."

Again at a loss for words, I looked at Nikola, trying to understand this betrayal. I knew I was screwed as the burning in my body began to actually hurt. I hung my head and my hair fell into my face. "I don't want to lead anything with you...I know how things were when vampires ruled...you were the masters of everything, kings and queens. You oppressed humans and used them. I refuse to be part of anything like that." I swallowed my pain for a moment and raised my head to look at Nikola, my tears visible. "Let me go, Nikola, please...you know what is going to happen when Helen finds you..."

Nikola looked taken back by my tears and he knelt down beside me, folding his elbows in my lap. "Why did you follow me here, why did you get in my car, why did you come to dinner with me?" he asked, his eyes searing into mine. His thumb traced the path the tears had taken down my cheek and I turned my head away. His palm fit the opposite side of my face and turn it back to him. "I need this question answered, Amy. I need you to tell me before this goes any further."

My heart stalled and my throat went dry as I formulated my answer, I knew the answer to the question but I didn't want to tell him that I came because I wanted another chance to be near him, to see him again and analyze why he gave me chills and made my breath stop for a moment every time he touched me. It was just an infatuation, I told myself, nothing to pay any attention to. It would never be reciprocated and I knew that. "Because I wanted to learn more about you, I wanted to know if Helen was wrong about you. You said you needed me, unlike you, I have a conscience"

Nikola tilted his head sideways just a little bit and smiled "Not the answer you meant but I will take it." he whispered, his face nearing mine. I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe at all with him that close to me. It was like all of my muscles seized and I couldn't make them move. Nikola's lips touched mine ever so slightly and he whispered against my lips "Why won't you tell me the truth, Amelia?"

I wanted to scream, I wanted to rage and hit things, that this man knew me so well after only such a short time was infuriating. Instead, I said the only thing that I could, "Nikola, I can't do this. I can't be like you. I don't have it in me."

"You have more inside you than you think." Nikola said gently as he backed away and stood up again. "That's why I chose you for this. I need someone strong enough to survive and my choices were slim." He brought back his haughty and arrogant demeanor as he started some work on a nearby table filling up a syringe and tapping it with his finger. "Now's your chance...sedation or my company. Either way, I'm not leaving you down here alone. You have a way of wiggling yourself out of things."

I remained silent as he moved towards me with the needle filled with a red serum. He reached for the port on the IV tubing and paused for a moment, watching my face for something. I thought about the situation for a moment and realized there was no way of getting out of here now, and no use in mourning past choices, screaming and ranting would do nothing now but deplete my remaining energy. I nodded slightly an affirmative and Nikola plunged the needle into the port and injected the serum.

At first it was an unpleasant pins and needles feeling, then a wave of agony as his blood mixed with mine and mine fought. I gasped for a moment, leaning forward against the bindings that Nikola had placed me in. The pain was something I could not describe and I found myself unable to scream, just sit there with my mouth open, half panting and trying to breathe through it. I felt the bonds that held me upright let go and I sank forward, Nikola catching me before I hit the ground. He sat down on the cement, holding me for a moment as I tried to breathe. He pushed my hair away from my face again and whispered to me, I couldn't hear what he said, words at that meant nothing. There were no colors, only gray tones. After a few moments though, I could put a color to the pain, a dark rich violet that came in waves and faded to lilac when it was receding. As the pain faded, I could breathe again and I realized that what had felt like hours was only minutes laying there on the cold concrete floor. I could feel Nikola stir behind me, gripping my wrist and feeling my pulse. "How are you feeling now?"

"Like I could seriously kill you, Nikola. Even by your standards, this is awful...Aunt Helen was right about you..." I sighed, leaning back against him, lacking the strength to sit on my own at that moment. I felt his hand rubbing my arm, comforting. There were two Teslas I realized, the one he wanted to show everyone else and the one that he was when he was with me. Even then, what he had just done blurred the boundaries between the possible and impossible, he had been able to replicate the experiment that my aunt had preformed a century plus before. I tugged the IV out of my arm and held it up to stop the bleeding. My mind was swimming as I leaned back on Nikola, could I allow Aunt Helen to actually harm him? Despite the fact that it had been done against my will, he had done something amazing, and at least that should stand for something. No, I would stand for him against her, I would say it was my idea and this whole thing would be our little secret. My resolve melted slightly as I thought about the situation, either I was going to thirst for human blood or I was going to live a very, very, very long time. Each on it's own was a justified reason to beat the holy God out of him, but I knew very well I would never be able to raise a hand to him.

I sat up on my own and leaned over to bring myself to my knees and turn to face Nikola who was sitting on the floor, beautiful, evil and amazing. My anger made my blood boil over for a moment and I struck out and hit him soundly on the jaw, barely making a dent in his perfect composure. Alright, I lied, hitting him felt good. It made me even angrier that I couldn't get a reaction from him so I launched myself at him with a growl and tackled him over, both of us rolling on the cement floor, knocking things off tables and breaking glass. My fury would not be spent so easily and I pummeled every inch of him I could reach, marveling slightly at my power as he grunted a little each time I hit him. Finally he rolled out from under me and stood, his abnormal side very apparent as his finger nails grew and his teeth got sharper. "Alright sweetheart, lets play," he growled back at me, smiling. I got to one knee and launched myself at Nikola again but this time he easily grabbed hold of me and tossed me aside. "Come on, Amy, I made you stronger than that."

From the other side of the room, I stood and glared at Nikola. "You have no idea how badly I want to rip you to pieces right now..." I said, leaning down on a desk with my arms and smiling. "And aren't you taking a bit of a risk on whether you made me like Magnus or like you? We still don't know..." I smiled wider and leaned down on the desk till my elbows touched it.

"We will find out soon enough, now why don't you come finish what you started?" Nikola laughed and spread his arms, taunting me. "I'm certainly not going to fall for your charms, Amy. I'm not the one that usually does that, isn't that your expertise?"

I laughed for a moment and stood up, "If you call those charms, Nikola, you need to read a self help book or something because you seriously are awful...You just happened to catch me on the wrong day." I smiled. "It's been a while."

"Seemed to work well enough...Can't actually say you were hellbent on fighting me off..." Nikola retorted.

I could feel my anger turning to ice with our banter and I steeled myself to walk closer. "Well, Nikola, when it's been a while, a girl just might pick up any bloodsucker off the streets.." I said, coming within ten feet, close enough I could still maintain composure and far enough away to evade attacks. "Remember, you came to me, not the other way around." I watched the reaction on his face turn from humor to a bit of irritation and smiled. He loosened his red cravat and pushed his sleeves up a bit further, I could feel the heat coming off of him like I had on the sofa but this time from further away, the reaction was nearly the same, chills running down my spine, but diluted by distance. It was like one predator stalking another, the heat in our eyes meeting, the tension was delicious, waiting for the inevitable. I was baiting him into going for me, meaning to dispose of him quickly when he thought I was off guard. "My, my Tesla, you surely didn't think I cared, did you? You were an interesting distraction for the moment. You imagined me pining away in the Sanctuary didn't you?" I smiled wider as I saw my words hit him harder than I ever could have. For a moment I felt awful about saying that, but he deserved it. His lip turned up at the corner as he nearly snarled at me. I shivered a little with anticipation as he shifted his weight ever so slightly, thinking I wouldn't notice. I prepared for his attack switching my weight from my weaker left leg to my stronger back leg and nodded enticingly at Nikola as if to say 'bring it on'.

Nikola growled and threw himself at me in what looked like a half hearted attempt to throw me off balance. I used the same move he had used on me earlier, gripping his upper arms moving myself to the side while using his weight against him and tossing him aside. He landed atop a table and knocked a mass of books and papers aside. I stood again and instead of waiting for him to make a move, I launched myself at him with a fury, going for his legs as he came around the table, trying to compose himself. I knew he wasn't ready for my attack and I easily brought him down to the floor once again. Our wordless exchange of blows grew heated as he fell to the ground and I straddled him, pummeling his face. His hands reached up to grab my wrists and he pulled me off him, tossing me aside to hit the wall hard. Nikola wasn't playing anymore, I think he understood that I knew how to fight and I was angry enough to keep it going all night. Stars bloomed in front of my eyes and the back of my head throbbed from the impact with the cement wall. Before I knew it, I was back on the ground, pinned, Nikola's fingernails digging into my wrist. As the stars cleared out, I could see Nikola's face, turned red by my hands and his dark eyes staring into mine. His human side returned, putting the vampire away. For a second, it took my breath away, his seriousness, surrounded by the damage I had caused. We just looked at each other for a while, trying to read the others mind. Finally Nikola spoke, "Tell me you did...tell me you waited for me...you thought of me." his eyes were frantic, fearful and serious. "I have to know...because I thought of you."

My heart stopped, completely, my lungs stalling and my jaw went slightly slack. I stared back at him and smiled a little. He released my wrists but still pinned me with his weight. "Of course I did, Nikola." I raised my hand and touched his face where it had been red and broken near his right eye. "I couldn't think of anything else, honestly. I knew what Aunt Helen, Will, Henry even the Big Guy, told me about you, but I thought maybe you had changed. I thought it was worth a try to see what you needed... I thought of you and nothing else for nearly a week." I ran my hand through his hair, soft and silky brown. "I am sorry I said that... I was angry..."

For another moment, all I could feel was the rage and passion between us as Nikola tried to find my soul through my eyes, seeking the truth. His thumb traced my jawline to my ear and he slid his hand behind my neck. I suppressed a shiver and returned his intensity in kind, letting my hand slide down his neck to the collar of his shirt, touching the little 'V' that was visible just inside his collar now that it hung open, one or two buttons torn off in our fight. "I think I need a drink...will you join me?" he asked finally, not moving form the position we were currently in, but his mood lightening considerably.

"As long as this drink doesn't involve making out with me and then drugging me into submission..." I replied playfully. Nikola let me up and we sat on the cement for a moment. I smoothed my hair down, wishing I had worn it up like I usually did.

"I can promise the second part." Nikola smiled, and for a moment I could see the predator I had been warned against, the Nikola Tesla of famed reputation, the mad scientist, the centuries old vampire who wanted nothing more than to recreate his race.

"Good enough for me."I laughed and stood up. "So...how do we figure out what I am now?" I asked, leaning back on a table,one of the many in the room.

Nikola smiled at me and took my hand, holding it palm up in his hand. "Concentrate on your hand, imagine mine isn't there, only yours."

I stared at my hand, concentrating on it and trying to make claws come out of my fingernails like Nikola's, trying to make anything at all happen. The exercise was fruitless, my hand was still just my hand, my nails painted in a pretty bright blue. I didn't even want to meet Nikola's eyes, knowing that if I did I would find disappointment and pain, maybe even anger with me that I was not what he wanted. He reached under my chin, pulling my face up to look at him, his hand wrapped around mine, warm and gentle. "I'm sorry, Nikola..." I murmured.

"You are still stronger, faster and you will live a whole lot longer...my experiment was not all for naught." He stopped for a second and looked at me. "My God, what have I done to you...it should have never been you. Amelia, I am so sorry..." It seemed like the extent of what his 'experiment' had done had just set in, and he was suffering.

"Nikola, lets get that drink, hmm? I think we both need it." I took his hand in mine and pulled him gently, getting him to move. "Come on...we will clean this up later." I motioned to the broken glass all around us.

"If you were smart, Amy...you'd run now, you realize that..." Nikola's sad eyes burned me like ice, the extent of his pain making my pain seem insignificant.

"Never much been a smart girl...always fell for the bad ones...And now you." I admitted, gripping his hand a little harder. I wanted my Nikola back, the arrogant, smooth talking vampire that I had grown used to.

He smiled a little and it slowly turned into the smile I knew, he squeezed my hand back and stepped forward to wrap his arms around my shoulders, burying his face in my hair. Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing that I had left it down, I thought to myself. "You forgive me?" he asked, his lips touching my neck.

I sighed a little, allowing him to lean into me though he was so much taller than me. "Yes, Nikola, I forgive you. I could never not."

"I lied to you, I brought you here under false pretenses, I drugged you and tried to make you like me. I could have killed you...I could have killed you..."

"Nikola, stop...you didn't lie completely...just stretched the truth a whole lot." I chuckled. "You said you meant the kiss..."

"And I did...I and I will mean the next one if you allow me..." he smiled, pulling his head back to look at me, his hands sliding down my sides to rest at my hips.

"Seeing as this relationship has been mostly built on things that you did not allow me and were beyond my control...why don't you let me mean one.." I grinned a little and closed the distance between his lips and mine quickly so he had nothing to say about it. I leaned forward, pushing him backwards till his back hit the wall, kissing him with enough passion to say everything that I didn't have words to say. He wrapped his arms around me and flipped us around quickly, pressing my back to the wall and kissing me back just as passionately. My world swam as I felt everything at once, Nikola, elation, fear, ecstasy, all warring for first place in my head. I felt his hands tracing down my arms to my hands and interlacing my fingers with his, all the while the kiss was deepening, Nikola was wordlessly coaxing my lips to open and finding new ways to make my pulse race. I felt like I couldn't breathe, his heat was stealing my air. He finally pulled away, even though I never wanted him to.

"How about that drink, " Nikola smiled, pushing my hair out of my face. I straightened my sweater, noticing that the arm and stomach were ripped from our fight showing the blue tank top under it. "I will find you something else to wear."

"Agreed..I am parched...Can't imagine why..." I smirked at him, pulling my sweater over my head and leaving it on a table. Nikola turned and headed for the stairs, I followed. My mind was going a mile a minute and I knew that this was the beginning of something amazing. Something that could last a very long time...if Aunt Helen didn't kill us both. But as things were, she would have a hell of a time killing me now.


	5. Chapter 5 Confrontation

Disclaimer...man these get old after a little while, you run out of ways to say...I don't own this stuff, I just seriously wish that I did.

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The dawn broke a few hours after we came upstairs, the rain still falling and suiting the mood. Both of us remained somewhat quiet, knowing that we only had a few peaceful hours left before the knocking would begin shortly followed by the screaming. I sipped at my wine, a sweet feeling washing through me as I looked at Nikola sitting in the chair opposite me. We had already drained one of his best bottles, taken from Aunt Helen's private stores a long time ago, and in silence we now stared at each other over our glasses and thought of things to say. Both of us knew there was nothing to save us now from the hellfire we had brought down on ourselves, I could save myself and doom Nikola by telling the truth, but I could never live with myself after that. Nothing she could do would make me repeat the transgressions that had happened and been forgiven this night. I had already worked out what I was going to say to her, Nikola had brought me back here at my request, we had drank a little bit and he had offered me a chance to participate in his experiment. Even though she knew I was not the kind to rush rashly into a decision like this, I could tell her I did it for a reason. The last part of the idea stuck in my throat, could I admit to Helen that I loved Nikola? Would she rip the whole house apart trying to take him down? Would Nikola hurt her in self-defense? Aunt Helen and Nikola had been friends for a very, very, very long time, longer than I could imagine, but as Aunt Helen told me time and time again, family is everything. I looked at Nikola again and smiled a little bit, "So...Thanks for the shirt..." The words sounded hollow and false, like they came out as a replacement for something else. I raised my hand to the silk collar of the button down dress shirt and touched it lightly, wondering if this was really all he wore, dress shirts and suits. Not that it wasn't delicious, but what about a pair of pajamas? My cheeks burned at the thought and I looked out the window at the rain again.

"Welcome..." Nikola replied, obviously distracted. "How much time do you think we have before they come?"

I checked the grandfather clock around the corner from my chair, it was ticking away the seconds, regardless of those wishing the time would stop. "Maybe an hour, two at most...All depends on how long it takes Will to find his keys..." I grinned, trying to lighten the mood. Nikola smiled back, one leg up on the chair cushion, one elbow resting on that knee and his fingers tapping at his temple. He was agitated, I could tell he was ready for a fight. "Nikola, I wish you would trust me to take care of this.." I got up from the sofa and moved over to the chair, lowering myself to his level, sliding to my knees. "I know Aunt Helen-"

"You forget I know her just as well, probably better, Amy. She will drag you out of here, away from me, 'out of my evil clutches' quicker than you can say 'stop'. And you know I am telling you the truth. I'm not much for over dramatization, so we will do this the easy way..." Nikola grinned at me and brushed his fingertips against my neck. "I haven't seen you all night, I have no idea where you are and you never showed up last night. The bottles of wine are mine and I have been too drunk to leave. I will tell her she will have to look somewhere else."

I laughed and leaned my head on his knee, smiling as he entwined his fingers in my hair. "That will work...sure. Not like she hasn't known you for what...a century? The woman probably can talk to you on the phone and tell you're lying."

"Actually, she can tell even by telegraph..she did that once." Nikola smiled and rubbed my neck a little, I could tell he was thinking about something. "So what do you propose we do?"

"I will answer the door-"

"Assuming we have one left, you mean,"

"Assuming we have a door left, Nikola, I will answer it and tell her the truth, I am here to help you with an experiment and I'm not leaving until it's finished. And that's final. I will tell her I am safe here, just as I would be in the Sanctuary...She might buy it. Its a safer bet than yours."

"Alright. We will play it your way, if that's what you want. I guess it will save me a bit of exertion, you have no idea how tough your auntie is. A regular hellcat." Nikola laughed, tugging gently on my neck to get me to come up to his level. "But I think you're actually a little bit worse..." He kissed me gently, running his hand back through my hair. "What have I created..." he chuckled, his face close enough to mine that I could feel his breath on my cheek.

"You, Mr. Tesla, have created a match for you. I can take you on any day of the week," I smiled, kissing the side of his mouth. I moved into his lap as the sounds of the rain tapping on the windows picked up, making it sound like someone was tossing pebbles at the window. In the early morning, it was a very peaceful sound, rather like white noise when you're trying to go to sleep. As we sat, holding each other, the clock struck six and moments after, a knock sounded at the door.

"Looks like you were a little off, darling." Nikola looked at me, putting his best 'Nikola Tesla' smirk on and the soft man I had become use to over the night was suddenly gone and replaced by the sarcastic, stubborn, arrogant Nikola he always was. "Well, lets go face the horde,"

Nikola helped me to my feet and straightened his shirt, the sleeves rolled up like he was working. I pulled the shirt he had given me a little straighter, it fell to mid-thigh, a little too long to look presentable but I had to make due. We both walked to the front door and Nikola stood behind me as I answered the door, smiling at the first person I saw.

"Well hello, Aunt Helen, what are you doing up so early?"I asked, knowing full well I was about to hear exactly what she was doing. By her side was Will, looking like she had woken him from a dead sleep and Kate, looking pretty similar.

"Amelia, you know exactly what I am doing here. Where is Nikola, I want a word with him." Aunt Helen eyed the shirt I was wearing but I could tell she didn't even want to ask. Ever my savior, Nikola popped out from behind the door, sweeping me behind him with one arm and moving to embrace Helen with the other.

"Ahhh, Helen, I've missed you so, how have you-"

"Stop it, Nikola." she stopped him with one arm but she didn't need to use her hand to stop him because I could tell that her tone sent ice through his veins as well as mine. "You know what I am here for. I want a word. A few of them actually."

"Well come in, please, you and your...associates...seem drenched and cold. I will have Amelia make some coffee." he smiled back to me and I nodded to him, motioning Will and Kate into the door and through to the living room. They followed me carefully, Kate had her hand near her hip the whole time, I knew she was thinking we were about to get attacked by something awful in the evil 'Tesla' house. I made sure both of them were seated in the room where very recently Nikola and I had spent a few tranquil moments together.

"Amy, are you alright?" Kate asked immediately as Aunt Helen and Nikola went to another room, supposedly to talk. She noticed my shirt and raised an eyebrow. "Need me to hurt him? Did FangBoy touch you? Because if he did, I swear..."

"Kate, chill out, I'm fine. I don't even know why she dragged you guys out of bed this early, I would have been back later today." I laughed, gripping her arms. She gripped my arms back, trying her best to read my face and failing horribly. "How about that coffee?"

"Yeah, I guess. Can't believe that FangBoy has coffee actually...usually he drinks wine..doesn't he? Seems like coffee is a bit of a reach for him." Kate replied, taking a seat next to Will who was looking at me through hurt eyes that I couldn't even bring myself to look at. I went to the kitchen to make the coffee, even though I had no idea where anything was. Leave it to Nikola to send me on an impossible errand in an impossibly organized kitchen.

Eventually I sorted out where the coffee grounds were and located the coffee maker and got things started. I leaned in the corner of the kitchen against the counter and tried to hear Nikola and Aunt Helen's conversation. I could hear muffled voices, sometimes it was Helen's, sometimes it was Nikola, but I could tell both were barely restrained from raising their voices. I wondered if they would be alright, maybe it would be better if I went in there with them. What was Nikola telling her?

The smell of coffee, the universal drink of arguments, fights, late-night talks and morning conversations, wafted through the house and I hoped that the comforting scent would calm some nerves a little.

Alone in the kitchen, I thought about the situation, free from distractions. I always felt safe at home at the Sanctuary, ever since I arrived there after my parents died, but what I felt when I was with Nikola was something I had never experienced. It was safety, it was comfort, it was ice and heat, it was his darkness clashing with everything in me and a wave of ecstasy and confusion rushing over me in response to every touch and look he gave me. I knew very well that Will was sitting on the sofa cursing Nikola in every way he could and perhaps cursing me as well for what he had seen so far, and he didn't know the half of it. Suddenly I heard a crash and breaking glass and a shouted,"Helen!" I took off through the kitchen, beat Kate and Will through the living room and ran straight for the library where I knew Nikola would have taken her to speak with her.

Aunt Helen was seething in the middle of the room and had Nikola hiding partially behind a shelf of books. "Is it true, Amelia?" she rounded on me, she may as well have been armed for as menacing as she was. No wonder everyone feared her wrath, I had never really seen it.

"Everything he told you is true." I sighed, my hands hanging to my sides. I refused to hang my head in shame because I felt there was nothing to be ashamed of. I walked slowly to Nikola and took his hand, leading him from behind the books to face Helen together. "But I chose to stay, Aunt Helen. You have to admit, despite his unorthodox methods of 'research', he has done something amazing. He has recreated the experiment you and the others preformed, only without a sample of Source Blood. Think about it, Aunt Helen, please, that's all I'm asking you."

Will and Kate moved to flank Aunt Helen, and stared at me like I was something different, something foreign. "I could have run, guys, but look..." I stopped, unsure of what to say next when Nikola squeezed my hand comforting me. "I didn't want to run. I came for a reason."

Aunt Helen looked wounded for a moment, I could tell she was understanding and it was knocking the wind out of her. "Why, Amelia, what was your reasoning?" she asked, her voice loud in the library. Will and Kate looked on eagerly, waiting for an explanation as well, their faces looked "We could have done this in our lab in the Sanctuary if you were so keen on it. There was no reason to go chasing him." she emphasized the 'him' so much I almost flinched.

"I needed to." I bit back at her, stepping forward. "I wanted to." I took another step forward."There was something with him that I needed to understand. Something that I have never felt before. And now I need you three to understand it as well. If he would have ASKED me to do this for him, I would have given him my arm in a heartbeat but he didn't know that." I paused and looked back at Nikola who was no longer the snarky, arrogant Tesla that everyone present knew. He was my Nikola, the one he was when we were alone. "If he asked me to give him a star, I would die a thousand times just to try to reach one for him."

"Amelia..." he whispered, reaching forward to touch my shoulder. "You don't have to do this, not now..." he whispered in my ear, so close, I could feel his lips on my hair. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and buried his face in my hair.

"No, Nikola, they want to know. They asked me why, and I will be damned if I'm going to lie." I looked at Will, Aunt Helen and Kate in turn. Everyone was silent and Will and Kate's eyes were wide. Aunt Helen looked as if she were about to explode.

"Leave it to my blood to be the one that couldn't resist him..." she murmured and Kate held back a chuckle.

"Well, Magnus, you have to admit, I am charming." the cocky Tesla said from behind my shoulder.

"Don't push me right now, Nikola." she warned.

"Well, Helen, I'm just telling the truth..." he stood back a little, his hands still on my shoulders.

"Do you have ANY idea how close I am to shooting you just for stress relief?" Aunt Helen yelled, her voice echoing around the room. I started a little and I could tell that Will and Kate were looking at her in disbelief. "Alright...Amelia." she sighed a little "You have made your decision? Are you sure about this? Evil mad scientist and all? You know what helping him entails now?" she closed the ten feet between us and stood a foot or so away from me. "You are not like you were now and I want to make sure you are not just saying this because you feel entitled to stay with him." she put her hands on my shoulders and I noticed that Nikola had moved to stand by my side. "You are like me now..."

"And a little bit of me..." Nikola added but was silenced by a viscous look from Helen.

"Yes, Aunt Helen, I know what I am doing." I grasped her shoulders in return and pulled her into a fierce hug. "I love you, Aunt Helen and I am sorry..."

"No, don't be sorry. If you are happy and safe, then I am happy." she looked at Nikola when she said 'safe' bit, but it didn't matter because I knew that I was safe there and that she was going to let whatever was happening continue to happen. I released her from the hug and stood back a little, letting Nikola enfold me in his arms again.

"She's sa-" Nikola started and Helen cut him off.

"I don't want to hear it form you. Nikola. I really don't. The only thing you can do now is to prove yourself. I don't want to hear another word from you." she snapped at him. I didn't feel him flinch, I didn't feel him move at all. "If anything happens to her, Nikola Tesla, I will hold you completely responsible for it. I will find a way to make you pay for it."

Aunt Helen turned her eyes back to me, warm and inviting for the first time since she arrived at Nikola's place. "Any Sanctuary's doors will always be open to you, no matter what. And my phone is always on. I'm sure Kate will not want to be left alone though...you may have to go out with her once in a while...you know how she gets when left alone with the boys for too long...she gets a bit irritated." Helen looked back at Kate who had put her hand on her hip in typical Kate fashion and was rolling her eyes.

"She'll be fine, Helen. Come on...lets go home." Kate volunteered, motioning to the door to the library. "Maybe a cup of coffee for the road, I mean you already made it and it would be a shame to let good coffee go to waste, right?"

Will still stood motionless, looking as if someone had kicked him in the stomach. I shrugged Nikola's arms off me for a moment and went towards Will, stopping a few feet from him. "Will, I..."

"Just don't OK?" Will waved off my attempts at an apology.

I could almost feel Nikola's tension from behind me even as Nikola began to talk again with Helen. I could tell his eyes were on us. "Will, please...Listen to me. "

"Why would you do this? You could have stayed at the Sanctuary. You heard Magnus, this man ruins lives, for God's sake. And you invite him into yours with open arms, let him change you, let him make you like him." Will looked down away from me as if studying the carpet. "I can't help but think that if I had tried a little harder... I could have saved you."

"Saved me from what, Will? From Nikola? From becoming...whatever I am? I think this was supposed to happen. I think this is just fate." I replied, trying to touch his crossed arms but he pulled back away.

"Fate...supposed to happen...That fucking bloodsucker kidnapped you, probably brainwashed you too. We checked with the restaurant last night and they said that you two left together and you weren't too sober, Amy. You probably don't even remember what happened to you."

I turned to look at Nikola and Aunt Helen to find that Nikola was looking directly at me, his posture said that he was waiting to come to my rescue. I shook my head at him slightly and turned back to Will. "Listen. I remember everything. Will, look at me. Remember who you are talking to. I am Amelia, your little 'sister' Amelia. I am the one who always came running to help you, and you always came running to save me even if I didn't need it remember? You have been my friend, my brother for years. Now stop and think, do you really think that I don't know what I'm doing?"

Will stopped and looked me dead in the eyes and smiled a little. "Yes, Amy...I know. You know what you are doing but the problem is... I don't know what you are doing. I can't fathom what would make you do this." Will ran his hand through his blond hair. "Amy, are you in love with him?"

I blinked at the question and looked back to Nikola and then back to Will. "Yes, Will I am." I whispered to him like it was a secret even though everyone in the room could probably have been able to see that from one hundred yards away. I think he just needed the confirmation from me, to hear it in my voice, in my words.

"Right then... I understand. Kinda...he's still a bastard, I want you to know my opinion of this right now. He's crazy and you're not much better and I swear to God you had better not go along with his 'world domination' bullshit or I will... I will..." he stopped, looking at me as if for the first time. "Well I guess there's not much I can do to you now, but you WILL hear it from me, understand?"

"Yeah, Will, I understand. Completely." I smiled and embraced him and squeezed him tight as he hugged me back, just as tight. "Just don't ever doubt that I don't know what I'm doing." I whispered to him, patting the back of his head then giving him one good solid thump.

"Dammit, Amy, that hurt!" he yelped, rubbing the back of his had as Kate laughed at him.

"That's for the attitude!" I said, putting my hand on my hip and laughing. Kate laughed harder and smiled at me, the kind of smile that says 'It's ok' and made everything right with the world.

It seemed like everything had calmed down between Aunt Helen and Nikola as they were now talking of how he managed to recreate the experiment without the sample of blood that was destroyed. Nikola was going over it with her, explaining how he split the double helix and such, something that Will was interested in but Kate and I drug him off to get a cup of coffee.

"Looks like FangBoy and Boss Lady are getting along better. Well, by better I mean she 's not going to eviscerate him in the next five minutes. So lets talk about him, what can you tell me without being too gross?"

I grinned a little and nudged her arm playfully. "Define 'gross'."

"Oh, God, Oh, God, my brain has fried! I do NOT want those pictures in my head!" she laughed, nudging me back. Will only smiled, still trying to adjust to everything I think. "You know, you are the last one I would have though of falling for him. I figured it would be the mermaid...you know, the one downstairs? Yeah, whenever Tesla came down there she would always give him eyes." she chuckled.

"How would that work out I wonder...like Romeo and Juliet, I bet..."

We all sat in the kitchen for a little while and laughed together as if we were back in the Sanctuary instead of Tesla's kitchen. It seemed like everything was going to be normal...well as normal as they could be anymore. I had kinda screwed up the 'normal' part for myself.

Aunt Helen and Nikola came out from the library and into the kitchen after another few long minutes and both were smiling. A good improvement by any standards. "Alright, lets get back in the SUV, I am tired and I want to sleep in my own bed." Aunt Helen smiled at me and nodded to Nikola as Kate and Will downed their coffees. "We will see you soon, Amelia? I don't expect you to stay away for long."

I smiled back at Aunt Helen and nodded. "Of course, I will be back yet this weekend. I will probably need to pick up a few things...Are you two ok then?" I ask ed looking pointedly between Nikola and Helen.

"Yeah...we are fine, sweetheart. You come back soon, alright?" Aunt Helen took my hand across the table, squeezing it reassuringly.

"I will be fine, don't worry about it alright?" I squeezed back and smiled.

Everyone left one at a time after getting hugs from me and at least Kate actually was civil enough to give Nikola a handshake. It wasn't a warm one, it was a warning, but it was a start.

Soon, Nikola and I were left in the house alone. As I turned to him, he was already reaching for me, anticipating the tears. I pressed my face to his vest, letting him wrap his arms around me and comfort me in his own way. "It's alright...its over now and everyone is alright."

"Yeah..." I sobbed against him. "I know it...it's just... I thought you were right there for a moment. I thought she was going to demand I come back with her."

"What did you say to Will when you were taking...at the end? I'm just wondering..." Nikola smiled to himself, brushing his cheek against my head.

"Which part? He asked if I was safe here, if I knew what I was doing, if I was..." It dawned on me what he was asking and I looked up at him with a slight smile. "He asked if I was in love with you."

"And...?"

"I said yes. Nikola Tesla, I love you." I replied, leaning into him and pulling him as close to me as I could, wishing we could melt together and stay that way.

Nikola stayed quiet for a moment and smiled as well, kissing the top of my head. Right then he was my own personal Nikola, not the arrogant one, the selfish one, but my Nikola. He was the Nikola that would fight with me one moment and then the next he would be kissing me like I never knew was possible. My own Nikola.

"I love you too, Amelia Sharpe." At that moment, he felt like the predator I had come to know, but he wasn't scaring me, I knew that at that moment, he would tear down the gates of hell to find me. And I would climb the stairs of heaven and face the saints for him.

His darkness warred with my light and I relished in the feeling as I felt him take me over completely, extinguishing whatever was left of me in my body. As we stood there in the kitchen in the early morning light, I stood back and looked at him. He could never know how beautiful he looked, his slight form in suit pants and button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, back dropped by the pristine light of dawn. It was enough to take my breath away. I held my hands out for his, leading him away from the kitchen, then letting him lead me to darker places in the house. Places more appropriate for the dark lust growing in both of us.


	6. Chapter 6 Mission

Alright! After what seems like forever, I have an update! I am in the middle of writing Chapter 7 which will be a continuation of chapter 6. I wanted to post them together, but it kept getting longer and longer so I decided to give you an update tonight instead of making you wait for the whole thing tomorrow. Many thanks to those of you who have been keeping up with the story so far. You guys are the reason I have kept writing, your reviews and comments keep me going! Anyways, thank you for your understanding in the way of my late updates! Oh, and as I think it is important right now...I wrote Chapters 4-5-6-7 to Framing Hanley-hear me now, Thriving Ivory- hey lady, Thriving ivory-Angels on the moon, and LastDayHere- Saved from falling. Shout out to my most favorite bands! They're my muse! :D

Please read and review! It keeps me going! ILY to all my readers!

Disclaimer- Dont own it, wish I did...Well...horrible things would happen if I did own it, so maybe this is better...:D

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On the drive back to the Sanctuary, I felt a little anxious, a little apprehensive, wondering if everything was going to be the same as it was when I left four days previous. The rain had let up, leaving a landscape full of sad, sodden leaves and a quickly dropping temperature. Autumn had always made me happy, but this year it was different, I could feel something coming, something new, and the pseudo-knowledge of the coming event left a small, hard, numb spot in my chest. When I tried to concentrate on it, it made me feel a little sick and scared despite the fact that Nikola sat next to me in the passenger seat. It shook me to the core about what could possibly make me feel so scared when he was sitting so near and I knew I was safe. I turned the last turn before I would pull into the Sanctuary and ventured a glance at Nikola who was fiddling with the radio, trying CD after CD to find something we could agree on. I never thought that I would be sitting in a vehicle with Tesla and feeling so...normal...it made me grin a little.

We had found out in the last four days that the experiment had made me more like Nikola than we had thought previously, not in the blood-drinking capacity but in the strength department and a little in the temper department. We nearly had a repeat of that first night when he tried to decide that it was better for me to go back to the Sanctuary before we fell any deeper down the rabbit hole we had dug for ourselves. I had tried to argue the point otherwise, but he was in full blown Depressed-Angsty-Tesla mood and would hear nothing else on the subject. It was shortly after that the covers flew off the bed, pillows were tossed and claws were on display with both of us on either side of the bed, ready to fight. Nikola had diffused the tension by laughing and making a joke about rather having an argument with Helen, unarmed. I realized that he had understood that night, I wasn't going anywhere, even when he decided to wallow in self-pity. Nothing else had been mentioned since that night, but I could tell sometimes that he only felt I was only there because of what he had done to me. He couldn't have ever been more wrong.

We turned into the driveway and I punched in the code for the gate, waiting for it to beep its response and open for me. The gate swung wide and I parked in my usual spot, slightly surprised that it was still open and Henry hadn't taken it over. He always hated walking to the door in the rain. As I parked, Nikola seemed to have finally decided on a song to play and the first piano notes sang from the speakers in my car. "She checks her pulse, gotta know if her hearts still beating. And the hospitals not far if anything should happen here. She's bored in a week, big dreams, but nothing material. And I refuse to believe that love is for the weak, I'm not vulnerable." a man sang from the CD and Nikola actually seemed to be enjoying it.

"Now that wasn't bad, really..." he protested as I shut the car off. "I could have stayed right here in the nice warm car and listened to that..."

"You just don't want to go inside and see everyone." I smiled, looking at him. He pulled the collar of his jacket up and looked offended.

"You act like I should care what anyone in there says." Nikola leveled me with a look. I smiled back to diffuse his temper a little and offered him my hand.

"Just relax, Nikola, I'm sure Aunt Helen called us here for a good reason. She said something about needing a hand with an abnormal." I opened the door of the car and put one leg out onto the ground and looked back to see Nikola eying me with suspicion. "I highly doubt she called in a full assault. Probably be Kate, me and Will, and that will give you time to relax here at the Sanctuary. Aunt Helen might even let you peruse her wine cellar..." I grinned at him, knowing that at least would get him moving.

The door opening to the outside made me turn and look to see who was coming to the garage. "Well come on already. What are you doing? Making out in the car?" Kate stood in the door frame wearing her favorite leather coat and an amused smile on her lips. Her hand was on her hip and she leaned against he door frame waiting.

"Alright, bossy, I'm coming..." I laughed and got out of the car. I heard Nikola's door open and close as well as he got out and came around the side of the SUV.

Kate came down to meet me halfway through the four car garage and folded me in her arms. "Good to see you again."

"You're acting like you never thought you were going to see me again...I told you I'd be coming back, you know Magnus isn't going to let me relax that long, she likes to keep me busy." I chuckled as I hugged her back. We let go of each other and fell nearly immediately into 'business mode'. "So what do you know about what she's sending us after?"

"Something about an abnormal near here. And she's coming too, and Will and Henry..." she shot a glance at Nikola to see if he was listening. "She wants Tesla to go too...And she called in Druitt too. What ever it is, it's something big."

"Are you joking?" Nikola asked her, his voice getting a little higher. "Please tell me she's joking, Amy?"

"Kate usually doesn't joke like that..." I smiled at him tensely. I really didn't want to be around Mr. Tall Dark and Creepy much more than Nikola did. John Druitt bothered me in a way I could never describe, like the kind of twisting you get in your stomach while falling without the actual fall. Matter of fact, I didn't ever recall Druitt much caring for my company either, even when I was little. I really didn't relish the fact I would have to endure his company on this trip either. We walked inside and I couldn't sense his presence yet but I was sure when he arrived I would know immediately, I always did. Nikola walked behind Kate and I as serenely as he could, but I could feel his tension, his dislike of the situation.

"Magnus is in her office waiting on us, Henry is somewhere with a computer, ready to bring the EM shields down so Druitt can arrive. Will is packing some supplies and will meet us in her office." Kate informed us as we walked. "Shouldn't have long to wait."

We turned the last corner on the way to Aunt Helen's office and I wondered what she had found this time, a renegade spider or lizard or something? No, that wouldn't take all of us, this would have to be something really big. Nikola's hand ventured to rub my back like he knew I was getting nervous, I looked over my shoulder and smiled wide. I couldn't lie, despite the fact I was always a little scared beforehand, I loved the danger and the adrenaline. I loved being faced down by that which most people didn't even know existed.

We entered Aunt Helen's office and she leaned against her desk with a worried look on her face. When she noticed us, she smiled quickly to cover her previous expression. "Ah, there you are, it's about time." she joked with me, moving to pull me into a hug. I wrapped my arms around her, noting that she had not put in earrings as she usually did and she was not wearing one of her usual suits she favored. She was in a pair of black pants, black sweater and a gray vest. Not a good sign. "We are only waiting for John then..." she smiled at me and put her hand on my shoulder when I opened my mouth to ask exactly what was going on. "I want to start when we are all here, ok?"

I nodded for a second and seated myself on the corner of her desk, crossing my arms. I waited for the familiar shiver to run down my back to tell me that Druitt was within creeping range and I looked around at the office, feeling slightly out of place. I shrugged it off to the fact I had been away from home for a little while and I always felt misplaced when I stayed gone for a while. Nikola came to stand behind me and put his hands on my shoulders, I was not sure if it was to

make me feel better or to keep me between him and the man walking in the door.

Will looked up at us and rolled his eyes, half-tossing his black bag of 'goodies' on the sofa. "You didn't tell me you were inviting him to the party..." Will protested, half-seriously. "I didn't pack any wine.."

I laughed for a moment and smiled warmly at Will "Grand to see you too, sweetheart." I mumbled as if hurt he hadn't said hello.

"Oh? Is that the voice of my friend...Kate you know...the one that ran away with who was it?" he mocked, earning a swift punch to the arm from Kate.

"Leave her be, Will" Kate chuckled, "You'll have to excuse the good doctor...things have been hard on him with no one to pick on around here...Been a long four days..."

Suddenly, I felt a cool sensation wash over my skin, like cold oil running down my spine and I shivered. "Druitt's here..." I mumbled, feeling Nikola's hands tensing on my shoulders. I reached a hand back to touch his and met his eyes, he looked a little worried, but confident.

Moments later, footsteps echoed down the hallway, forceful and angry. "Tell me you were joking, Helen. Please tell me you made a mistake in the message and you didn't mean Tesla and..." Druitt ranted all the way down the hallway and into Helen's office where his eyes first met Helen's then mine then Nikola's. "Amelia..." If there was ever a John Druitt 'face-palm' moment, it was then. I almost laughed as I saw his face turn a lovely shade of purple. "Nikola Tesla...hallway? Now?" Druitt pointed towards the hallway with his thumb, squeezing 'now' out of his clenched teeth.

"John..." Helen said in a warning voice and Druitt nodded as Nikola walked past me and into the hallway followed shortly by Druitt. I looked at Aunt Helen and she smiled a little and shrugged. I knew she couldn't really say much about Nikola and I because she wasn't exactly the poster child for falling for the 'right' guy. Kate looked at us quizzically and Will just looked amused, hiding a smile behind his hand and turning to look out he window. I could begin to hear muffled voices in the hallway, arguing, I could tell. I wanted to go tell Druitt to mind his own business and other things that would have stung a little bit more than that, but I kept quiet and stayed on the corner of the desk.

I heard a loud thud suddenly and the crashing of something that sounded rather expensive and I moved to get up but I felt Aunt Helen's hand on my shoulder. "You have to let them fight it out."

I sighed and nodded, I had seen them do it before but never over anything that really mattered. "You worthless piece of -" I heard Druitt rage in the hallway, followed by another loud crash. Aunt Helen rolled her eyes, knowing she would have to replace whatever was being destroyed. "We watched-" his words were fading out like they were moving away "her grow up!" I winced as another crash issued from the hallway. "Don't you remember Molly?" At that comment, I heard everything grow quiet for a moment followed by an explosion of crashes, bangs and grunts. I couldn't help it, I ran into the hallway to see Druitt and Nikola at the end of the corridor trying to beat each other into a bloody pulp. There were rips and dents in the plaster of the wall, vases were knocked to the floor and a hallway table was crushed.

Nikola's abnormal side was out, actually gaining ground on Druitt. "Don't ever bring her up again, or I swear to God." Nikola hissed.

"Or WHAT, Tesla? You'll do the same thing to her?" Druitt pointed back the hallway at me.

"If you want to do this, Druitt, why don't we talk about Whitechapel?"

"I didn't LOVE them now did I?"

"ENOUGH!" Helen yelled, coming to the corridor as well, her hands on her hips. "John, you promised you wouldn't do this..."

"Oh, Druitt promises a lot of things, I am sure..." Nikola chuckled, dusting the plaster off himself.

"Nikola, I said enough..." Helen warned. "If you are both done trying to see who is the better man, then I suggest coming to my office so we can brief before this mission," she looked at both of the men disgustedly. "Dust yourselves off first please."

I walked quickly down the hallway, trying to get past Druitt to Nikola but he stopped me with one large hand. Our eyes met briefly and Druitt grabbed my hand, "Amelia...I'm sorry..." I pulled my hand out his and noticed the hurt in his eyes, but I didn't care.

I brushed past him to get to Nikola, helping him brush the last bits of white off his dark suit. "You alright?" I asked him, straightening him up a little.

"Had worse, trust me." Nikola smiled, his hand sliding onto the side of my face, effectively stopping my nervous efforts to help. "Amy. I'm alright." he held my hand for a second more before meeting eyes with Druitt again who was watching the whole exchange with weary eyes. They nodded to each other for a moment and Druitt turned away, walking past the destruction to Helen's office. I wasn't about to ask either of them about 'Molly', I knew if it was any of my business, Nikola would eventually tell me about it.

Ten minutes later, we were all seated in the office, Kate, Will, Nikola, Druitt and a very disappointed Henry, who had missed all of the action. "Never get to see anything good...Nubbins, lizards, sure, but that definitely doesn't count."

Helen waited till everyone was settled and the light was starting to fade outside the windows. "Alright, now we have all the testosterone cleared from the room, I will assume it is safe to continue." she smiled a little and continued, pulling a file off her desk and passing it around. "I have recently become aware of an abnormal, Michael Kovrell, 23 years old, living here in the city. He has recently proven himself very dangerous when he killed four people, all people who knew him. He projects dreams onto his victims. That's what makes him so dangerous, that's why we are all here. No one goes anywhere alone once we reach his area. Kate and Will are paired, John, Henry and I will go together and Nikola, you have Amelia, if that's alright." Nikola nodded a little and rubbed my back again. "John will be transporting us one at a time to a designated place near the quarry, we have already checked to make sure that he will be there and he won't see us." I flipped through the file as it came around to me and looked at the blueprints for the apartment building that he was last seen in. It was dirty, rundown, and mostly abandoned, scheduled for demolition next year. The most we were going to encounter other than our abnormal was a few squatters in the building, not very threatening.

I looked around at everyone else and stood up before anyone else. "I will go first and clear the way for the next person." I volunteered, moving to Wills black bag and pulling out a flashlight and a Springfield XD, strapping it to the outside of my right thigh. Nikola smiled and shook his head at me, readying himself as well.

"Woo! Amy's back in the game!" Kate cheered, tugging her coat on and standing as well.

"You sure you're up to it, Amy, I mean...One of us could go first."Will, eyed me carefully. I smiled and moved to stand next to Druitt as much as I didn't want to.

"I've got this, Will. You act like it's the first time I've gone in first." I laughed. "See you on the flip side, guys," I winked at Nikola as Druitt's hand fell on my shoulder, gripping tightly. There was a nauseating pull and the next thing I knew, I was on one knee on the pavement and trying not to heave.


	7. Chapter 7 Failure

"You never have gotten used to that, have you, Amelia?" Druitt chuckled at me, helping me to the side of a dark alley. I didn't recognize the place, but that wasn't saying much because it still hadn't stopped spinning.

"No, I really don't like to do that.." I mumbled back, trying to keep my lunch in place in my stomach. "Really...now go and get the rest, I will do some recon to make sure nothing is around."

Druitt eyed me for a moment and nodded. "I'll return with Kate next. Then Nikola."

I crouched down and went for cover near some boxes and random junk piled on the side of the alley, sizing up the entryway to the apartment building. I could get there before anyone saw me, I knew, even if he was looking out for someone. I smirked a little bit and stayed crouched as I followed the cover of junk almost all the way to the back door. Another shiver down my spine let me know that Kate was now here as well. I turned to look for her and smiled as she noticed me, I waved her on up next to me but she shook her head and signaled for me to wait back near her. I moved up nearer to the door and motioned with my head again. Kate scowled at me and motioned me back again. I rolled my eyes and smiled again, opening the door and slipping through. Shiver, I knew that Nikola would be standing in the alleyway with Druitt now, waiting for Aunt Helen to arrive. I let the door click shut nearly soundlessly behind me and continued down the hallway full of debris.

I could tell there was someone living in the building, almost like I could feel breathing. There was a candle lit on the second floor, maybe a few candles, and I could hear shuffling on the floor above me. Pulling my gun from the holster, I stayed down near the floor, both hands on my gun. I moved to the stairs slowly and quietly as possible, keeping an ear out for any more movement. The shuffling above me stopped suddenly and I advanced one step at a time, looking upwards towards the top of the second flight of stairs. My foot hit and can and sent it rolling down the linoleum of the hallway and I hissed in a breath, hoping no one heard it. I could hear the floor creaking above me but I stayed still as possible, still holding my breath. The can stopped rolling and I leaned against the stairway, trying to blend into the shadows.

After a few minutes, I couldn't hear the noises from above anymore so I proceeded towards the first flight of stairs, my gun trained up towards the top of the stairs as I slid my back along the wall. The air pressure changed around me and I knew that the door to the apartment building had opened and the rest of the party had started. I pushed off the wall and climbed the stairs still in a crouch, but moving faster, knowing backup was a few feet away. At the top of the stairs, I whipped around, aiming at the first apartment door open in front of me. The other doors were closed and they looked to be locked securely. I rounded the corner, turning into the open room, but the only indications that someone had been in the room were a still burning stub of a candle on an overturned cardboard box and some newspapers lining one side of the room in the fashion of a crude bed. A few empty cans of food lay around along with some filthy shed clothes around the edges of the room. The dirty carpet told of years of feet and spills of occupants and then of the weather beating down on it from the broken out windows. I could hear Aunt Helen coming up the stairs, her footsteps very well known to me, Kate's voice whispered behind her and I could feel Druitt.

I turned around a wall in the apartment and was promptly greeted by a fist to the face, knocking me back. I landed not so gracefully on my backside, looking up into the face of a thin white male, mid-twenties, scared and angry. He leaned down over me to deliver another blow and I pulled my leg back to kick his knee back until it hyper-extended. He moved his leg to dodge the kick, throwing himself off balance and leaning his full body weight onto his fist headed at my face. I moved to the side to catch the hit on my right cheek, but I couldn't move out from under him so I took his elbow to my chest. I wheezed as I tried to breathe, shoving him off me as quickly as possible as he tried to grapple with me to keep me on the ground. Where was my back up? I thought desperately as I rolled with the man, trying to keep his hands off my arms. I tried to deliver a kick upwards but his thighs blocked my knee and he shoved his forearm across my throat, leaning down. I gritted my teeth, pushing upwards with all I had, trying to dislodge my attacker. "Who are you?" he hissed at me, leaning down into my face. I couldn't answer with his arm across my windpipe so I tried to mouth 'friends' at him. He raised his other fist and punched me across the mouth, making me see stars. "Liar...You a cop?" I shook my head negative. "Feds?" Negative again. Where was Helen, Kate, Druitt for God's sake. I couldn't hear any footsteps, it sounded like we were alone in the building.

I pushed against his arms again, finally my left hand slipped past his grasp and flew up to his face, scratching desperately. He yelped and let go for just a second, a second I used to push him up then grab the front of his shirt, pulling his face down into my elbow. I grinned at the sickening crunch and shoved him away from me, his body falling back into the wall behind him. I sat up and ventured a look around the corner for my backup and saw nothing but an empty hallway. "Druitt!" I called out, getting to my feet and looking around for my gun, not seeing it anywhere. The man got to his feet again, crouching low with his arms wide, as if he were trying to tackle me.

Feet trampled up the stairs, people yelling out and my heart soared, help was on the way. The man looked panicked and began to search for a way out. He tried to dive past me but I leaned down and caught his knees and sent him to the floor. I crawled my way up to sit across his back, pulling one arm behind his back and leaning down on him. "Amy, where are you?" I heard Kate call, her voice a little stressed.

"In here, Kate, in here! I have him," I called back, smiling as I saw her face turning the corner to the room. Aunt Helen and Druitt were shortly behind her, both with a slightly blank look on their faces, I tried to meet Helen's eyes but she was looking at the man on the floor. Druitt immediately took over for me, grabbing the man up and standing him on his feet.

"Get off me! Fucking cops!" the man yelled, struggling against Druitt's hold on him. Druitt laughed at him and gave me a smile, shrugging a little.

"We are here to help you, Michael." Aunt Helen said, hiding the syringe of sedative behind her sleeve. "We know about your 'talent' and we are here to help you control it"

The man stopped struggling and looked at Aunt Helen with darkened eyes, when he smiled he reminded me of a wolf. "Never said I needed help with it, now did I." He began to close his eyes like he was concentrating when Aunt Helen uncapped the needle and quickly injected the sedative into his arm and Druitt turned him away from all of us. The man slumped forward shortly after and Druitt released him to the floor gently, making sure he was secured before he turned to the rest of us.

"You alright?" Aunt Helen began to look over my face and I smiled a little bit, then grimaced as it tightened up my eye and made it hurt.

"Yeah, fine, fine. Just fine, where's everyone else?" I asked, shooing her hands away from my face. I looked at Druitt and studied him for a moment, I couldn't feel him and it bothered me. I felt him when he was on the stairs, but when he came into the apartment, I couldn't sense his presence anymore and that never happened. I looked around for a moment, trying to find Will and Henry, knowing they were supposed to be there as well. My stomach felt hollow, nervous, like I was missing something.

"They're downstairs with the gear. We thought we were going to have a bit of a tougher time, but you rushed ahead...recklessly." Aunt Helen chided. I raised an eyebrow at her, confused. That was it? No full on assault for what I had done? I shrugged it off, my stomach hurting worse and worse. "Lets get you back home so we can get you taken care of." she smiled at me, nodding to Druitt.

"I will come back for him, trust me, he's not waking up anytime soon." he said, stepping forward to put a hand on my shoulder.

"Where's Nikola?" I asked, starting to feel a little dizzy, something was out of place and I knew it. Aunt Helen looked at Druitt and Kate looked at me, her eyes sorrowful.

"Nikola left, Amy." Kate sighed, her dark eyes sad and comforting. My heart cracked in half and I almost cried out. I knew that by 'left' she had meant 'left' me. Druitt's hand tightened on my shoulder, trying to comfort me and I didn't have the strength to shove him away. It was all his fault, I realized, Druitt ran Nikola away from me and smashed my world to pieces.

"Get her home," Aunt Helen told Druitt sternly, her eyes filled with worry and compassion. She knew my pain, she still carried it in her heart. I knew her heart cracked in two every time she was in the same room with Druitt because she knew that they could never make things right again between the two of them, but they loved each other so much it hurt. I felt the sickening lurch again, Druitt taking me home.

We arrived back in Aunt Helen's office and I collapsed onto the sofa in front of her fireplace. My eyes were dry not for lack of tears but for the lack of the ability to feel any emotion over the pain that coursed through my body. It was a physical torment like ripping my organs from my still breathing body. I felt I needed to strain to breathe anymore and I felt Druitt sit down next to me. He was the last person I wanted anywhere near me but as he rubbed my shoulder, I was grateful not to suffer by myself at that moment. I would kill him later.

I sunk my head onto the cushion of the sofa and stared at the wall, something still wasn't right. It was in the back of my mind and begging for attention. I focused on the wall for a moment, realizing what it was. The room was not the same, the pictures were slightly different, the sofa and walls a slight shade different than they were earlier. The sofa didn't smell like Aunt Helen's perfume and there was no little hole in the rug near the fireplace, the one I had burned there myself when I was starting a fire there a long time ago. I sat up immediately, my eyes wide and I looked to Druitt who was smiling at me sadly. "John...when's my birthday?" I asked, grasping at straws to pull my reality together when it was so close to fraying apart.

"January 27th, 1984, why?" he replied, taking his hand away from my shoulder and grabbing my hand to hold between his huge hands. He looked at me oddly, one eyebrow raised, an expression I had never seen on him before.

"What is my favorite color?" I asked, staring at him intently.

"Green, Amelia, what is this all about?"

"What was my first car?"

"The red Sebring convertible that your Aunt Helen bought you for your 21st birthday." he replied, now really looking at my as if I had lost my mind.

I blanked my mind out and asked the next question, focusing on nothing but the oriental rug on the floor. "Who was Molly?"

'

"Molly who, sweetheart?" he asked, gripping my hand harder now.

"This isn't real." I laughed, taking my hand away from Druitt. "None of this is real...It's a dream. You have my birthday, my first car and my favorite color because I know those things... I knew if I asked you something I didn't know, either you would know or this was a dream." I stood up and backed away from Druitt, now I knew the truth, but the trick was, how do you escape a dream?

I looked around the office trying to make sense of anything at all, was Nikola really gone? My heart ached, but I couldn't take the time to figure that out. Druitt was standing up and coming towards me, his face contorted in a mask of some kind of mixed up emotions, sorrow, rage and madness all displayed. I ran out of the office, off to the left and kept running, trying to get to my room before Druitt did. Why wasn't he teleporting? I wondered as I ran. The answer hit me in the face as I slammed my door open, the dream only knew things that I absolutely knew. If I didn't know how Druitt teleported, then neither did the dream. I slammed the door shut and sat down on the floor, bracing my feet against the bedpost of my bed, my back on the door.

I shut my eyes and tried to concentrate on waking up, feeling something that was real, even if I could only grab onto pain. "Amy, come on sweetie, wake up now..." I heard Aunt Helen's voice from so far away. I grabbed onto it and tried to pull myself closer to her. I could still feel my dream body, but I started to feel massive amounts of pain as well. I pushed my eyes closed harder and tried to pull myself into my body.

"Amelia, wake up. It's me, Kate."

"Amy, come on wake up for me..." Will said, closer still.

"Amelia, you are scaring me..." I heard Nikola whisper close to me, I knew I could feel him touching me but it still felt like miles away.

"Amy...wake up now..." I heard Druitt say, the real Druitt and for the first time in what seemed like forever, I could feel his presence, cold and slippery.

I grasped onto the voices and pulled myself further out of the dream, I felt like I was almost there when the dream Druitt slammed into the door, nearly dislodging me from my spot behind the door. I braced my feet harder and almost cried as I felt so helpless and so scared, like I would never get out again. Fists pounded on the other side of the door and I ignored them as well as the screamed words from the door, I reached for reality again, feeling my dream slip away slowly, like a thick drape of cobwebs, trying to pull me back down as hard as I struggled to get out of it.

"We are going to have to move her, Helen. We have to go.." Druitt said.

"Alright...take her back to the Sanctuary. Take Nikola with you if you can, he can see to her. We will be waiting here." Aunt Helen replied. I could feel her cool hand on my face now, I could feel strong arms under me, picking my body up and causing more pain than I thought possible. I almost slipped back into the dream.

"Careful, Dru-...John...please.." I heard Nikola ask. I felt his hand on me and I knew his touch as well as I knew my own. I held onto the pain in my body to keep me in the reality I needed. I forced my eyes open and saw nothing at first, blurry forms all upside down.

" I will, Nikola." Druitt replied, shifting me carefully.

"She's awake!" Will said from across the room, I tried to lift my head but I couldn't. What had happened. I tried to speak but I was incapable. Nikola's face was the first one I could make out, crowding me, touching my face.

"Amelia? Amy? You in there?" Nikola asked, pushing my hair away from my forehead, the pain there was almost enough to make me want to go back to sleep. I blinked a few times at him and tried a smile to make him feel better but whatever the expression on my face, it didn't work. "John, we need to go..." Nikola looked away from me and up to Druitt who nodded. I felt the sickening feeling of transporting and I opened my eyes again in the infirmary in the Sanctuary. I tried to catch a look at myself in the glass separating the supply room from the main OR, but Druitt was in the way. I tried to lift my head to see what was going on but Nikola promptly stopped me. "Stay still now." he ordered me, moving some gauze around on a tray and grabbing a suture kit and other supplies. I opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out. "You're alright, sweet, you're alright. Just relax now.." I could hear the tension in his voice but I couldn't figure out what had happened. One shiver after another went down my spine, Druitt was bringing everyone home. Aunt Helen materialized somewhere near my head after a few moments and she began to work with Nikola. "Just rest..." he whispered to me as he wiped a piece of cool, wet gauze across one of my eyes. I felt so tired, maybe he was right...I should rest...My eyes fell shut and everything went black.

Opening my eyes again felt like more than a chore, it felt like a nightmare. Had I woken up into reality finally? Everything hurt, so I was fairly sure it was reality. I turned my head slightly and saw Aunt Helen slumped over on the desk she was sitting at in the dimly lit 'recovery room' as we called it. Three more cots were lined up next to me, but two were empty, Nikola filled the third. "Hey..." I whispered. Both heads shot up from where they were laying and Aunt Helen strode briskly to where I lay.

"Good to see you awake...I'll wait till you feel better to really tell you what I think." she smiled at me, checking something on my IV.

Nikola jumped up from the cot next to me and came to my opposite side. "How you feeling?"

"Like I got hit by a truck...repeatedly." I smiled back, feeling my lips crack a little. I raised my hand to my face, feeling my lips. There were rips and tears all along my lips and I could tell they were swollen. My jaw felt tight and as my hand traveled up my face, I could feel a black eye and a possible broken orbital socket. "What happened?"

"You rushed ahead like an idiot..." Nikola said firmly. "When we finally caught up to you, we had Druitt take the target down and tranquilize him, but he'd already put you down hard. Looked like he caught you off guard and put you into dreamland pretty quickly, but continued to beat on you. He's a very angry person..." Nikola explained. I tried to sit up but he put a hand on my shoulder, stopping me. "I don't think that's advisable..."

I looked at Nikola, trying not to turn my head much because it hurt. "I am really glad to see you..." I smiled, reaching my hand for his. He took my hand and rubbed it gently, sitting on the side of the bed.

"And we are really glad to see you...For a minute it was a little sketchy..." Nikola looked to Aunt Helen and I could tell both were relieved.

"So what's the damage?" I looked at Aunt Helen, raising a bruised eyebrow. I could feel a fair bit of pain through whatever painkiller she had me on, I just hoped that I would be up and around before long. I couldn't describe how embarrassed I was, having gone ahead when I knew I shouldn't have. I should have waited for Kate, I knew the risks involved, but for some reason I thought I was better than that. I thought I could handle it. Had the fight between Druitt and Nikola affected me that much, so that I felt like I had to prove something to myself? To Druitt? To Nikola? Now the only think I had proven was that I could very effectively run in, get my ass handed to me and need rescued. My cheeks burned as I thought the situation over.

"Three broken ribs, your orbital socket was cracked, dislocated left shoulder, a minor myocardial contusion, massive bruising all over your body, and about a hundred and fifty stitches...And you were lucky." Aunt Helen moved to stand closer to me, her hand touching my shoulder. "Why did you do this? This completely avoidable...You should have waited."

"I know, trust me, I know. I feel so stupid right now, you have no idea..." I replied, trying again to sit up. Aunt Helen raised the head of the bed for me, readjusting my pillows for me. I looked down at my arms and felt tears well in my eyes, my arms were a mass of bruising and gauze. I licked my lips and laid my head back on the pillow, trying to figure out what to say next. There had to be something I could say to make everything better, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was. I could feel Nikola's eyes burning into the side of my face but I wouldn't meet them. I felt a small shiver run through my body and I knew that Druitt was in the Sanctuary, I knew he would probably want to come down and read me his own version of the riot act, but I really didn't feel up to it.

Aunt Helen turned to answer her cell phone that was ringing on the desk. "Yes, she is...I'm not so sure if that is such a good idea, John...But...She just woke up, John...Alright, alright. You win." she hung up her phone and smiled at me defeat written all over her face. "John wants to speak with you, Amelia."

I wanted to turn over and cover my head with my pillow and my cheeks burned again with shame. Nikola touched my hand and stood up, I looked at him quizzically, feeling a little panicked. "You're not staying?" Nikola shook his head negative and my stomach did panicked flips back and forth, remembering my dream. "Nikola..." I murmured.

"I'm not leaving you, Amy." he kissed my forehead and smiled. "How could I ever..I will be right outside, waiting for a few minutes. Druitt wants to talk with you, and I promised I would leave...Amelia, please trust me that if someone is going to leave, it will never be me. How could I leave my heart?" He kissed me again, so gently it was barely a kiss and turned to leave. Aunt Helen followed him, her white lab coat swishing behind her as her heels echoed on the floor. I closed my eyes for a few moments, willing myself not to cry. The painkillers were making me feel a little swimmy and sleepy but I willed my eyes back open, waiting for Druitt to walk in to berate me for my stupidity.

When the doors slipped open again, John Druitt walked through with a look of amused exasperation on his face, not the angry expression I had expected. "Well, well...Awake?" Druitt teased, coming to sit on the cot next to me. "We have been waiting for nearly a full day. Gave your aunt a fair scare...All of us, really. I don't think Will has gone to sleep yet, Henry is fiddling with something in his lab and Kate has been cleaning the same gun for about six hours now." he smiled, eying my face. "Nikola hasn't left you once..." he admitted cautiously. "I may have been mistaken in my actions before we left, Amelia, and I apologize, I really do. It's just...All of us have grown so fond of you...And your aunt, Nikola and I have watched you grow up...Before your parents..."

"John...it's ok.." I smiled and held my hand out for his, my muscles protesting violently. "I understand, I really do. .I just have dealt with so much recently...Can I tell you something? And I mean honestly, it has to remain between us two. Solely."

Druitt took my hand and moved to sit closer, where Nikola had been sitting previously. "You can tell me anything Amy." he replied. I fixed him with a stare that would have made most men fear at least a little for their lives, but I am sure it was somewhat watered down seeing how I couldn't get out of bed. "I won't tell anyone...promise."

I sighed a little and relayed to Druitt about what had really happened between Nikola and I. His face darkened when I told him of Nikola's betrayal but he remembered his vow quickly and returned to listening, occasionally rubbing my hand in support. I told him the story from beginning to end, from the meeting in the woods, to the restaurant to Nikola's house. I told him of waking in the basement, the transformation, the fight, everything. I also told him that I could never hold any of it against Nikola because I had loved him from the beginning. I couldn't explain why, I just knew I had to be near him. I felt tears starting to run trails down my cheeks and I looked away, trying to hide it and continue but Druitt stopped me and put his hand on the side of my face.

"Do you realize what you have done to Nikola?" he asked, his lips curled in a slight smile. I shook my head no, I knew what Nikola told me, what I felt when he touched me, what he whispered to me in the dark, but I hadn't heard anyone else's view. "We had to stop him from tearing that animal apart. It took me, Will and Henry. Nikola and I got up the stairs first, we found you first. He shifted immediately, without even thinking and it took all of us to hold him back, Will still has the bruises."Druitt smiled a little and continued his story. "I have never seen that look in Nikola's eyes, not since the old days when he was...well...new. He wanted to destroy that man, he was nearly out of control. When we finally subdued Kovrell, it was Nikola who was first to your side. We tried to wake you for a long time, but Helen realized you had been put into a 'dream' by Kovrell, none of us knew how to wake you from that but he tried and tried, calling your name and trying to stop the bleeding at the same time. He was a man possessed." he looked away and put my hand back in my lap, staying at my side. "Finally, I moved him away and picked you up. I knew we had to get you back here soon or we would lose you. You were already so cold, I was scared it was too late. Nikola was the first one to start taking care of you when we got you back, but you were awake by then, at least a little...What I want to know is what do you remember?"

I looked down at my bandaged arms and thought back as far as I could, trying to remember everything. "I remember going up the stairs, entering the apartment and getting punched in the face. I guess that's when I fell and he put me in the dream...In the dream, I was fighting him and doing well...You came and helped me subdue him, Aunt Helen sedated him and I asked where Nikola was. Kate told me he had left...You brought me back to the office and sat with me. But Aunt Helen's office wasn't quite right, the smells and colors were off, the pictures weren't right. I asked you questions and you only knew the answers to the ones that I knew. I figured it had to be fake. I remember running away from the dream you, and running to my room. I could hear Kate, Aunt Helen, Nikola and you calling me. I tried to pull myself out of the dream using your voices, but the only one that helped was Nikola. I used the pain and his voice to wake up."

John Druitt sat near me with a strange expression on his face, something between a smile and a blank stare. He patted my side and smiled then, as if satisfied with what he had heard. "I will be back later to see you... Why don't you get some sleep. It's three in the morning, Amelia...I will send Nikola back in if you like." John moved across to the other side of the bed and picked a syringe up, fitting it into my IV and depressing the plunger. "That should help a bit with the pain. And yes, Helen told me to do that..." Druitt chuckled a little at my look of initial distrust. My eyes started to get a little heavier, and I nodded slightly.

"He can come if he wants..." I yawned, feeling my jaw protest the action. I did want Nikola there with me, but I knew he should rest as well. Druitt would probably tell him everything, I knew but that was alright. Nikola wouldn't mind, I knew.

"Good night, Amy. We will see how you feel in the morning...Maybe I'll give you my 'that was really stupid' speech then." he chuckled and I smiled back. I couldn't keep my eyes open much longer so I closed them and listened to Druitt talk. "He really loves, you Amelia Sharpe. You just have no idea what that means yet...You know he is conniving, impertinent, subversive, at times a little evil and crazed. But the Nikola that Helen and I know, the Nikola that he is to you, is brave and loyal, protective and caring, and everything I could have hoped for you."

I fell asleep smiling, the pain dieing off and letting me drift into a dreamless sleep. I wasn't sure if I was ready to dream again yet.


	8. Chapter 8 Memories

Alright kiddies! I am really, really sorry that it took sooooo long for me t update but my health took a dive for a moment and then my laptop decided to die with most of the original chapter 8 on it! So here is the revised chapter 8 which I believe is better than the first one! Read and review and I will be faster on the next chapter! Thank you so much!

Disclaimer: These really do get tedious...But I don't own it, I just play with it!

Six weeks after the incident that had gotten me hospitalized, I could finally sleep without aid from Aunt Helen and her favorite cure-all, lorazepam. Nikola seemed to be stuck between proving to Aunt Helen that he could take care of me and showing Druitt that he had been wrong. The bustle of the Sanctuary never really let up, it just moved around me. Kate, Will and Henry had been in to see me numerous times before I was out of the infirmary but now it seemed like they were avoiding me like the plague.

I knew why. Between my and Nikola's little stunt and then my nearly fatal mistake, I was now a liability. They didn't know me anymore, really, I had changed too much. Even Nikola was a little nervous, unsure if it was his actions that had changed me so drastically or my reaction to events. I knew I needed to find a way to fix everything before it was far too broken to be salvaged.

Snow was falling by the time Aunt Helen pronounced me well enough to regain duties around the Sanctuary. Nikola had stayed on at the facility with Aunt Helen's permission and Druitt popped in on occasion to check on things. He had never told Nikola or anyone else about what I had told him in confidence that first night.

I was in the library replacing books that had been randomly placed around the room. Oddly enough, many of them had wine stains on the covers and title pages which made me smile, feeling close to something that Nikola had poured over in the early hours of the mornings, books of poetry and some of the classics. Druitt came to the library door, knocking on the frame, a force of habit, part of his gentlemanly decorum and something that had never left him. "Amelia, do you have a moment?"

"Yeah, sure, what do you need?" I replied, plopping down in one of the armchairs scattered about the room. As he approached, I noticed how haggard and worn he looked, dark circles around his eyes, his clothes wrinkled and he looked slightly more pale than usual. "Hey, you alright?"

"Yes, I am fine. How are you feeling?" he asked as he seated himself in a chair across from me, sinking back into it and rubbing his eyes with one hand. The top button of his collar was undone, something unheard of for him and I could tell he had hastily tucked his shirt in before coming to see me, it was crooked.

"Nearly back to normal, John. What's going on?" I asked, leaning forward and putting my elbows on my knees.

"I'm just going to say it, Amy." Druitt sighed and slumped further in his chair and covered his eyes with his hand. "I need you to talk to Kovrell. You're the only one he will talk to. I've already run it past Helen and she will be there as well. Nikola is in the cellar and now is the time to do it without interference."

I slumped in my chair and groaned, closing my eyes. I really didn't want to do go, I would have really rather sawed my arm off with a rusty hacksaw. Only the misery on Druitts face and the disheveled air about him convinced me otherwise. "Alright, lets go." I stood up and reached for his hand to help him up.

Taking my hand, Druitt pushed himself out of the chair. "If this works I may owe you my life." he said tiredly, bringing my hand to his lips.

I raised an eyebrow at him and took his other hand, squeezing them warmly. "John, what's this about?"

Druitt began to lead the way out of the library and down the hallway to the elevator as he spoke. "Kovrell knows of the location of a formula that can be used to keep my elemental, my rage, at bay. But he's refusing to speak to anyone but you."

"Why me? Why not someone else, Kate or Will even?"

"William has tried his psycho-babble, and Kovrell just laughed at him, quoting Freud in the

original German." Druitt smiled at me and pushed the button to call the elevator. "He wants you because he says...he already knows your mind."

I shivered and leaned against the wall next to the elevator doors. It was feeling more and more like a really bad idea to go through with this, but every time I looked at Druitt, I couldn't help but want to help him. He looked so tormented at that moment, more than I had ever seen him. He actually looked worse than when he and Aunt Helen fought. I knew if I could help, then he could stay in the Sanctuary and he wouldn't be a risk anymore. Maybe he and Aunt Helen could reconcile someday.

" Ah, there you are," a voice called down the hall, a voice that I knew as well as my own. As I turned, I saw a happy Nikola Tesla sauntering down the hallway with a dusty bottle of wine in his hand, as only Nikola could saunter. Druitt groaned low as he approached and the elevator doors opened. "Why do I get the distinct feeling I am missing something?"

"Umm...I'm going to male a social call, a nice friendly chat, a safe chat, that's all..." I tried to cushion the idea before Druitt blurted it out bluntly as only he could.

"Kovrell insists that she is the only person he will speak with." Druitt sighed, leaning against the wall of the elevator and pushing the button for the sub-basement.

"Absolutely not!" Nikola practically leaped into the elevator before the doors closed. "Are you mad? We almost lost her the first time and you want to put her in there again, why?"

The door closed and I looked between the two men, Druitt for once had a helpless look on his face as Nikola faced him down, the bottle of wine in his hand now forgotten. The elevator jerked into action and a second look at Druitt left no doubt that he was ashamed but determined.

"Good God, man. It's about your little anger issue isn't it. Something to make you more co-habitable? So you're going to sacrifice Amelia to stop killing?" Nikola raged at Druitt. I could tell he felt helpless to stop events.

"Tesla!" Druitt roared. "You think it makes me feel worse than I already feel? Because it doesn't, that's not possible. I have tried for days to pry information out of this little twerp downstairs. If I had an alternative, I would use it Do you really think you are so much better than me, Tesla? Afte the things I know about you, you're lucky you're still alive!"Druitt ranted, backing Nikola into a corner. I could tell Nikola was about to fight when Druitt hung his head. "Amelia is the only chance I have. I swear to you, Nikola, she will be safe."

Nikola turned to me, his dark eyes pleading. "And you agreed to this? No coercion?"

"Yes, love, I agreed." I paused for a moment and eyed Druitt again. "Nikola, look at him. He's barely slept, I know he hasn't eaten...he would do the same for either of us." I replied as the doors opened revealing Aunt Helen, Will, Kate and Henry wattling hear the central control console for the cells.

"Fine." Nikola sulked. "But this is a really bad idea." he offered, putting hand on my shoulder in support. I could tell he wanted nothing more than to turn around and knock the daylights out of Druitt, but he was restrained.

"Amelia, I'm glad you've come down." Aunt Helen smiled and opened her arms for me. I moved towards her to recieve a hug and looked at the other three waiting.

Will looked nervous, like he wasn't sure what he was going to do if something went bad. "Hey, Amy. You ready for this?" he asked, a small smirk on his lips.

"Yeah, no problem." I replied, stepping back and nearly running into Nikola who had moved directly behind me. The cold concrete room seemed so big and so unnerving at that moment, I almost broke out in a cold sweat, flashbacks of the dream and the beating I had received going through my head.

"You sure? You don't look so peachy." Kate eyed me, placing her hand on her hip right next to a nine millimeter in a holster.

"I'm fine, really." I grinned, trying to will the blood back into my face. "Lets just get this over with." Nikola kissed the back of my head and smoothed my hair back before stepping back near Druitt. There was a chair at the end of the hallway where I was assuming Kovrell was being held and I started making my way down to it.

"We will be monitoring both of your vitals, watching on three different cameras and we will be ready to intervene at any moment. Just let us know and we will shut it down, you just relax and let us handle the technical stuff." Henry offered his own brand of comfort in the form of technical expertise and a smile.

"Got ya. Thanks, Henry, I'll be fine." I continued down the hallway another ten feet. "And John?" I waited till his eyes snapped to mine and I smiled. "You owe me one..."

At the end of the hallway, there was a dark lump sitting in the back of the steel walled cell, it looked barely human, contorted in a way that shouldn't have been possible. It was like the darkness had folded into itself and the shape was purified dark. I sat gently in the seat, trying to make as little noise as possible, perhaps I would get lucky and he would be sleeping.

"There's nothing like that first violation, you know. That first trip into someone's mind, one you haven't been into before. It's almost like sex, like rape. It's the most amazing feeling, Amelia." a voice rasped from the dark bundle. I shivered and felt my pulse begin to race, I wanted to run but I was rooted to the spot. "Your mind was sweet, like fruit and cream. So soft and pliable, I could make you dream anything that I wanted and there was nothing you could do to stop me. I have ripped the most important thing out of your life in three seconds, what do you think I could do now? More time now and I know how to hurt you...your sweet, sweet Nikola. The man who violated you in his own way...and you liked it. Do you like me, Amelia?"

I had to keep myself from dry heaving as he spoke, the words grating down into my soul. "I'm only here to ask you about the formula, Kovrell." I said as firmly as I could manage, my sweaty hands gripping the sides of the chair. "What can you tell me about the formula? Can it save Druitt?" I leaned forward, still about three feet from the safety glass. The dark ball of human unfolded itself and stood up to a height of nearly six feet. He pushed his dirty hair back from his face, revealing bright blue eyes staring from a dirt darkened face and stared directly into me. I could tell he was searching through my thoughts and I couldn't help it, I wasn't going to abandon Druitt just because some prick wanted to rifle through my head.

"I'll give you a trade, Amelia...Would you like that? You do one simple thing for me and I will give you what you desire." Michael Kovrell came to the glass and put his hands on it, smiling like it wasn't natural on his face.

"What's your trade?" I asked, feeling slightly apprehensive but I stood up and moved closer to the glass.

"Open the door and come inside." Kovrell smiled wider and put his face close to the glass, whispering. "You wanted to know why I won't speak to anyone but you?" he asked, his breath steaming the glass. I nodded, coming a little bit closer to hear, but still staying about eight inches from the glass. "Because no one else has your mind, your sweet and vulnerable mind, ready to be cracked open and stolen. I could make you do horrible things, make you believe you have done horrible things. I could take your world and twist it apart, watching you squirm and beg for me to stop. Oh, you would be so sweet." he sighed against the glass, making my insides turn knots.

"Why do you want me to come inside?" I asked, scared to know the answer but still not willing to abandon Druitt.

"I will give you the address and a time to get the formula, I will tell you what you will have to do to get it. And in return, you will allow me access to your mind again."

"Done." I sighed, looking back down the hallway where nearly fifty yards away there was already a flurry of movement and I could see Nikola running towards me followed by Druitt. I stood quickly and typed the code into the keypad on the door sliding my key card into the magnetic slot to reset the pass code and slipped into the cell quickly, the door sliding shut behind me. "There, now tell me what I need to know." I turned to him, my back to the cell door.

Kovrell advanced quickly on me, stopping inches from my face, I could smell his rancid breath, feel it forcing itself into my lungs. "I could make you love me, you know that. I could make you feel for me what you feel for him. I could even be a better lover. He can only touch your body, I can touch your mind, Amelia." his words forced themselves in my ears and I shivered again.

"Just tell me what I need to know." I gritted my teeth and turned my head aside. Nikola was at the glass of the cell, slamming his fist into the glass over and over, Druitt was working with Henry on getting the cell door open. "Quickly."

"Your mind first, Amelia." Kovrell insisted, pushing me against the wall with his chest. I nodded and turned my head away from the men at the cell door. A sharp, painful sensation was the only warning I had before he entered my mind, bringing up images unbidden. Memories of Nikola and I that first night at his house after Aunt Helen had left, memories of the first time we had met, suddenly all the images of Nikola were replaced with Kovrell. I tried to pull away but found myself pinned to the spot, enduring image after image of Kovrell and myself. Nausea warred with confusion as the images came in faster succession. Finally it was over and I could see the room again, finding myself on my hands and knees, Kovrell in the corner again.

"The address, Kovrell." I whispered, pushing myself back onto my knees. My head was pounding and I still felt confused and disorientated. I could hear codes still being punched into the keypad and Nikola still yelling outside, I knew I only had moments to get the information.

"9525 Miranda Drive, in three days there will be a party, a masquerade. Shouldn't be hard for you to get in. Use your imagination." Kovrell sighed and leaned back in the corner.

"Why did you look at my memories?" I asked in the last few seconds before the door was opened.

"Because I don't have any of my own." was the quiet reply, nearly drowned out by Nikola swearing at me, Druitt jerking me out of the cell, Henry and Kate were training guns on Kovrell. My world swam, the pain in my head overwhelming me momentarily as Druitt turned to walk quickly back to the console center, carrying me with him.

"That was reckless. Completely reckless, do you really want to chance him hurting you again?" Druitt was asking me, or himself, I couldn't tell.

"Got the address, John, don't worry. I got it." I mumbled into his sleeve. "I got it."

"You didn't have to go that far. I would never have put you in that kind of position." Druitt admonished me, sitting me down in one of the chairs at the console center.

"What the hell was that?" Aunt Helen asked, her hands on her hips. "I thought there was an understanding that there was going to be nothing out of the ordinary this time. Amelia, you are being ridiculous."

"I got it. Three days." I smiled, shaking my head clear. "Where's Nikola?"

"Right here, Amy. Right here." Nikola said, smoothing my hair down, coming to stand behind me.

"That was really stupid, anything could have happened to you, Amy, I couldn't get into that cell for a minute, you actually had me stuck."Henry chided, smoothing his hand through his hair in frustration.

"Someone give me a pencil," I mumbled, ignoring everyone trying to yell at me. A pencil was shoved into my hand as well as a piece of paper and I wrote down the information that was given to me at the end of the ordeal, trying to push the images and ideas out of my mind. "This is the address, in three days there's going to be a party and we are going."

"Come on, you need to rest." Aunt Helen said, pulling on my arm to get me to stand up. I stood and smiled widely at Druitt. I had done what I had meant to do and I had done it well, never mind the fact that I felt like I had been run over by a truck. I walked with Aunt Helen to the elevator and shambled in, followed by Nikola. Druitt stayed behind and looked over the information I had written down.

"Amelia..." Nikola whispered, pulling my back against his chest and folding his arms over me. I leaned back, relishing the feel of him against me, washing away the false memories that I had seen. "You alright?"

"Yeah, just fine. Just tired and my head hurts." I replied, watching Aunt Helen push the buttons for the infirmary.

"You going to tell me what happened? Why did you go in there with him. You knew the risks when you went in there. What were you thinking?" Nikola whispered in my ear. "I think I may kill Druitt. Just for being a selfish prick. He knew what you would do, he knew what to say to get you to do it as well."

"Nikola, love, it's alright. Leave him be." I sighed as we jolted to a halt, waiting for the doors to open back up. "I'm feeling better."

"I still want to do some blood work and get some fluids in you, we have yet to understand exactly how Kovrell's powers work and what they do to a human. " Aunt Helen stated from across the elevator. "But what I want to know is why are you doing this? Up until the last incident with Kovrell, you wanted nothing to do with John and now you are going out of your way to help him."

We walked out of the elevator and I plopped down on one of the beds in the infirmary. Nikola began to pull out IV fluids and other necessities while Aunt Helen worked to get an IV started. "Because I want him to be himself again. I want him to be able to stay. And because I see the way you two still look at each other. I know that look, Aunt Helen, and you know I do."

Aunt Helen was completely silent for a moment, working on getting the IV started, taped down and running. "Amelia Sharpe, you are amazing, you know that? But John and I could never be together again...too much has happened and I doubt that he would want to...after...Ashley."

I smiled a little and shook my head, leaning back on the bed. "I think you're wrong, Aunt Helen. I think that's why-"

"That's why I'm doing this." Druitt's deep voice sounded from behind Aunt Helen, startling her off the side of the bed. "But I can't risk it until I am...better..." He moved to her side, smiling as I had never seen him smile before and he took her shoulders in his large hands. "You have always meant everything to me, Helen. It's why I have always been near, even though you despised me for the longest time...and a long time to us is an eternity..."

Nikola's face was graced by the most clueless look I had ever seen cross his countenance and he simply stared at Aunt Helen who was struck speechless."I never despised you, John Druitt...I wanted to help you...I wanted to take away whatever was hurting you. I always wanted to be with you...and I still do."

"Maybe...you'll be more comfortable talking about this somewhere else..."I offered, smiling at Aunt Helen, letting her know I was alright. "After all, it's just a headache..."

As if in a daze, Aunt Helen turned around and let Druitt lead her out of the infirmary, leaving Nikola to care for me. I smiled, knowing that at least they were going to be alright. When I looked at Nikola, he seemed upset but quiet. "Nikola, please...don't be angry with me. I did what I had to. That thing is killing him and his death would kill Aunt Helen and you know it...I would have done the same for anyone in this building. They are my family."

"And you are my life, Amelia. I can't stand risking losing you, I would go mad. I could never take another breath knowing that I wasn't ever going to breathe next to you again. But you seem to insist on taking risks that even Magnus, Druitt and I wouldn't be rushed to take." Nikola sat down on the side of the bed where Aunt Helen had been.

"Nikola, I am sorry...I don't really know what to say except that tonight, when I got into the cell with Kovrell, I knew everything was going to be alright. I knew what he wanted and it wasn't to hurt me again. I promise you, I did not take as much of a risk as you think."

"What do you mean, you knew? A side effect of the serum?"

"I don't know, Nikola, all I know it that I could feel what he was feeling, the agitation, the frustration, the helplessness. And I knew he wasn't going to attack me, he had no intention of it. He just wanted to see my memories. He told me he doesn't have any of his own. With no memories of his past, no wonder he's so angry."

Nikola smiled at me a little, our secret smile not the arrogant Tesla smile he had been using all day. "Maybe I have underestimated you, Amelia...I apologize...Can you tell me what I am feeling right now?"

"I could tell you, Nikola, but I could show you better, you know." I grinned and reached a hand for his. He took it gently and kissed the back of it, his eyes on my face, still smiling his gentle smile.

"But when we are together, you don't have to have special senses to understand what I am feeling..." Nikola chuckled and unhooked the IV and pulled it out of my arm, helping me into a sitting position afterward. "Shall we retire then?" he smiled, helping me stand.

"Yes, I believe I am more than ready to get out of here. Not really much desire to spend time in the infirmary, contrary to popular belief..."

We left the infirmary behind, knowing that Aunt Helen and Druitt would have enough on their minds besides chastising me for not staying in the infirmary. As we walked down the hall, I couldn't help but think of the memories I had of Nikola, Aunt Helen and the others and what I would do if I didn't have them. Who would I be without my memories and was there any way to help Kovrell regain any of his memories, thereby helping him recover his humanity? I remembered the memories that he had tampered with, the ones where he replaced Nikola, and I couldn't help feeling slightly panicked. I couldn't imagine my life without Nikola. I couldn't imagine why Kovrell would want the memories he had implanted himself in...unless he could remember the memories he had stolen from other people. It made sense, not a comfortable thought, but it did add up.

I pushed that line of thought out of my mind as we came closer to our room and I knew that Nikola was watching me out of the corner of his eye. "Don't worry...I'm not going to say I have a headache..." I grinned at him as I opened the door. He smiled back for a moment but then nearly tackled me into the dark room, his lips on mine. His hands roaming up and down my body, removing random pieces of clothing as they moved, his body pushing me backwards towards our bed. I smiled through his passionate kisses, helping him remove his jacket in the dark and unbuttoning his shirt, tossing his tie aside. "Never have figured out why you wear so many layers of clothes, Nikola...It makes my job harder..." I said somewhat breathlessly through his kisses.

"Because it makes me damn near irresistible and you know it." he mumbled back as he removed the last few things separating us. I grinned to myself, allowing myself to revel in the moment. Part of me was tied to the present, the touches and kisses, the rest of me was reveling in the fact we were making just one more memory that was never going be tainted by Kovrell. We both knew he would never touch my mind again and we made the best of the moonlight and the time we had. I tried to memorize everything about that night, thanking God that I could, that I had my own memories, and that I shared them with the man I now embraced as my lover. There was no better feeling I could imagine. Nikola Tesla was mine and that would never change.


End file.
